The Los Angeles Dodgers have one other headache to fret about with reliever Edwin Diaz.
The three-time MLB All-Star pitcher Diaz has been linked to unlawful cockfighting occasions in his native Puerto Rico, Josh Peter of USA Today reported on Thursday. Photographs on social media obtained by USA Right this moment reportedly reveal that Diaz was pictured in a Dodgers uniform promoting cockfighting tournaments in two separate Fb posts again in February.
Peter provides that El Nueva Dia, a number one newspaper in Puerto Rico, revealed a separate story on March 10 with a photograph exhibiting Diaz standing within the pit of a cockfighting enviornment. The story additionally allegedly quoted Diaz as saying, “It’s a pastime I’ve adopted since I used to be a baby. It’s authorized in Puerto Rico, thank God. In any other case, I wouldn’t be right here” (per a tough translation into English).
Cockfighting is just not truly authorized in Puerto Rico as a federal ban on cockfighting went into impact in all 50 U.S. states and U.S. territories again in 2019. Moreover, the utmost penalty for collaborating in a cockfight is 5 years in jail and a fantastic, whereas the utmost penalty for attending a cockfight as a spectator is one 12 months in jail and a fantastic.
Peter additional notes that Puerto Rican brothers Jose Ortiz and Irad Ortiz Jr., horse jockeys who’re pursuing Triple Crown run this 12 months, have additionally been tied to social media posts promoting unlawful cockfighting.
Diaz, 32, is in his first 12 months with the Dodgers after signing a three-year, $69 million contract with them final winter. However Diaz has had a nightmare debut season in L.A. up to now, posting a ten.50 ERA together with some very regarding indicators of slippage earlier than lastly occurring the injured record final month resulting from free our bodies in his elbow. Now Diaz is alleged to have been concerned in a sport that was a deep-rooted custom in his native Puerto Rico for a number of hundred years earlier than lastly being formally outlawed in 2019.
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