CHICAGO (AP) – White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen thinks Major League Baseball’s steroids investigation is unfairly targeting Latino players.
Guillen was interviewed by several officials last season, and he said they repeatedly focused their questioning on players from Latin America.
“I meet with, like, five people,” Guillen said Wednesday. “The only thing that made me upset was they tried to mention too many Latino players. I think they try to put the Latinos to be the bad cloud in this thing. This thing was bugging me because everything they asked me (was), ‘Do you ever see this in Venezuela?”’
Guillen said asking whether players were importing steroids from their native countries was unfair, considering BALCO is based in California.
“They were like, ‘You never see any of the players bring this thing to the States?”’ Guillen said. “I said, ‘Wait a second, BALCO is not (in) Venezuela, is not (in) Puerto Rico, is not Dominican, is not (in) Mexico. BALCO is in California. Then why do you keep blaming players from Latin America for the problem that we have in the States?”’
An Associated Press review in 2005 determined that half of the players suspended that year were born in Latin America.
Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell didn’t respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
“From what I’ve seen of Sen. Mitchell’s investigation, he’s interested in anyone who might be involved in the use of performance-enhancing substances in baseball,” said Rob Manfred, executive vice president for labor relations in the commissioner’s office.
Guillen responded to a spring training interview about the subject by making an anti-doping video in conjunction with Major League Baseball. It will be shown to all players that participate in the Venezuelan and Dominican summer leagues, as well as other Spanish-speaking players throughout baseball.
“It bugged me,” he said. “That’s why I made a video. I made a video (because) I don’t want Latin kids to be involved with something.”
Guillen said he’s “100 percent” against steroid use but added it’s “not my business” if others take them.
“I really don’t worry about it,” he said. “I have three kids and those are the only three people I care about. Everybody else, you do what you want to do.”
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