The Dominican Republic has long been the world’s leading per capita source of professional baseball players, for multiple reasons:

• They love baseball there. I don’t know the full story but it has something to do with West Indians being hired from British colonies to work in the DR’s sugar cane fields and bringing cricket with them. Then Americans taught them baseball and they switched.
• It’s a rare place where blacks love baseball. Dominican ballplayers tend to be somewhat blacker than Dominicans on average.
• And you can buy steroids over the counter.

From the New York Times sports section:

The Dominican Republic Loves Baseball, but Steroid Problems Run Deep

Around 50 percent of baseball’s positive drug tests come from Dominican players. From Jenrry Mejia and Fernando Tatis Jr. to minor leaguers and teenagers, the problems permeate all levels.

By James Wagner
Nov. 4, 2022

… Since 2005, there have been 1,308 positive cases among major and minor league players. According to M.L.B., of the 30,000 drug tests it conducts around the world each season, 0.2 percent are positive for performance-enhancing substances, half of which are from players from the Dominican Republic.

For every Robinson Canó, Melky Cabrera and Bartolo Colón who tested positive, many more Dominican minor leaguers have been caught. And the most common banned substances in use are old-fashioned anabolic steroids that were prevalent in other sports decades ago.

Dominicans play at all levels of baseball, with eight in this year’s World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Houston Astros. But the percentage of Dominicans testing positive for banned substances is out of proportion with their representation in the game. Of the 975 players on teams’ Opening Day 28-man rosters and inactive lists this season, 99 — just over 10 percent — were from the Dominican Republic. The percentage was believed to be greater in the minor leagues.

You can buy cheap, easily detected Ben Johnson era steroids at your neighborhood pharmacy, but there isn’t as much expertise at how not to get caught. Hence, embarrassments like Fernando Tatis Jr., after leading the National League in homers last year and signing a $340 million contract, getting caught.

[Comment at Unz.com]