Baseball Cop

By: Eddie Dominguez, Teri Thompson, Christian Red

Narrated by: Jason Culp, Edward Bauer, Eddie Dominguez

Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

Exposing trafficking, theft, fraud, and gambling in the major leagues, a founding member of the MLB's Department of Investigations reveals a news-breaking true story of power and corruption.

In the wake of 2005's sometimes contentious, sometimes comical Congressional hearings on performance-enhancing drugs in baseball and the subsequent Mitchell Report, Major League Baseball established the Department of Investigations (DOI). An internal and autonomous unit, it was created to not only eliminate the use of steroids, but also to rid baseball of any other illegal, unsavory, or unethical activities. The DOI would investigate the dark side of the national pastime - gambling, age and identity fraud, human trafficking, cover-ups, and more - with the singular purpose of cleaning up the game.

Eduardo Dominguez Jr. was a founding member of that first DOI team, leaving a stellar career with the Boston Police Department to join four other "supercops" - a group that included a 9/11 hero, a mob-buster, and narcotics experts - keeping watch over Major League Baseball. A decorated detective as well as a member of an FBI task force, Dominguez was initially reluctant to leave his law-enforcement career to work full-time in baseball. He had already seen the game's underbelly when he worked as a resident security agent (RSA) for the Boston Red Sox in 1999 and become wary of the game's commitment to any kind of reform. Only at the persuasion of a widely respected NYPD detective tapped to lead the DOI did Dominguez agree to join the unit, which was the first - and last - of its kind in major American sports.

"We could clean up this game," his new boss promised.

In Baseball Cop, Dominguez shares the shocking revelations he confronted every day for six years with the DOI and nine as an RSA. He shines a light on the inner workings of the commissioner's office and the complicity of baseball's bosses in dealing with the misdeeds compromising the integrity of the game. Dominguez details the investigations and the obstacles - from the Biogenesis scandal to the perilous trafficking of Cuban players now populating the game to the theft of prospects' signing bonuses by buscones, street agents, and even clubs' employees. He further reveals how the mandates of former senator George Mitchell's report were modified or ignored altogether.

Bracing and eye-opening, Baseball Cop is a wake-up call for anyone concerned about America's national pastime.

©2018 Eddie Dominguez, Christian Red, Teri Thompson (P)2018 Hachette Audio

Eye-opener

First, I want to say I am reluctantly for the use of drugs. I would highly recommend no one ever use them. But I’d be naïve to think no one does. This book shows that we do not have a war on drugs other than in the headlines. It is a shame that our heroes on the ballfield probably are on steroids. This book is an eye-opener not only to steroid use, but only using words to battle the drug war. There’s too much money involved for anything to change. We will always have a war on drugs, but it’s one that we don’t want to win. What a shame!

His insight is out of the park

As a police officer and former college baseball player in the mid 1990's I saw the explosion of steroids in MLB. Dominguez is a tell it like it is cop in the truest form. His book peels back the layers of doubt and deceit that MLB didn't trully want fans to know the truth, but wanted all of the cash brought in by the bigger, faster and stronger athletes. This is one of the best baseball books I've ever read. He pulls no punches when outlining the trouble with MLB and their continued steroid problem that they don't truly want to ever go away.

I believe it, PED’s are here to stay.

Good story on after the Mitchell report the MLB just wanted it to go away. And for the most part it has, did not care for the author as narrator. As an audible book, looking for a more soothing voice to wind down to, sorry Eddie you don’t have it :) As a fan of the game ( and Red Sox ) it will be hard for me to look at professional sports knowing the same thing is going on in the background and there respective leaderships really don’t want it fixed.

Okay Book

The story could have been better if more about the sport than the author. I did not care for the narrator.

Dirty world of MLB

This book does a great job of telling the story of how baseball is dirty but tries to act like it cares about cleaning up.

Outstanding!

Paints a candid picture of the less than heroic world inside the operation of the business of Major League Baseball over the past two decades.