International Investigation

Jeff Passan reveals that their is an investigation underway into MLB dealings in the international market for players:

The plundering of Latin America wasn’t Major League Baseball’s original sin. It’s simply the one that has festered the longest. Corruption of all kinds – illicit payoffs, bonus-money skimming, doping teenagers with performance-enhancing drugs – has been treated as the cost of doing business. And the fallout may finally strike the game with the sort of consequences that for decades have seemed inevitable.

A federal grand jury is looking into Major League Baseball teams’ international dealings and has issued subpoenas to club officials and other personnel involved in the transactions, three sources familiar with the probe told Yahoo Sports. Agents from the FBI have spearheaded the investigation, according to sources familiar with it, and lawyers from the Department of Justice who specialize in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act cases – which typically involve bribery of foreign officials – are involved as well.

Of course, the upside is that a large number of international players made more than without baseball. Many of those players helped their families and communities improve their living conditions. “Plundering” usually doesn’t leave so many people so well off.

I’m also not sure how one fixes the problems that do exist. Most of the people committing the shady to illegal acts are not under US jurisdiction. As long as young players have the promise of a much better life through baseball there will be people who go beyond what’s ethical. It seems the only way to end this is for these countries to develop good enough economies that their youngsters have other choices than baseball for success.

For now, we wait and see if the grand jury finds MLB teams complicit in the shady activities of the international market.

from baseballmusings.com https://ift.tt/2QguzzU