Photos: Baseball in the Dominican

The anabolic steroid know as “Anabolex” is displayed by a journalist outside of a pharmacy where it was purchased on Aug. 21. Use of performance-enhancing drugs in the Dominican Republic is common and jeopardizes the game in a nation that produces more major leaguers than any foreign country.  (Kena Betancur / For The Times)

Epi Guerrero, right, watches a young pitcher throw at Guerrero’s academy in Villa Mella, Dominican Republic. Players use makeshift gear and play on less than ideal fields.  (Kena Betancur / For The Times)

Angels players leave the baseball camp on a motorcycle at the end of the season in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic. Twenty-nine of the 30 major league teams operate elaborate training academies on the island, signing prospects for millions of dollars, and pouring an estimated $100 million annually into the crippled economy.  (Kena Betancur / For The Times)

Players use a log bench to put on gear as they prepare to practice at Epi Guerrero’s baseball academy in Villa Mella, Dominican Republic.  (Kena Betancur / For The Times)

The anabolic steroid know as “Anabolex” is displayed by a journalist outside of a pharmacy where it was purchased. Over the last season and a half, 59% (81 of 137) of the minor league players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs were from the Dominican, home to a quarter of all minor leaguers.  (Kena Betancur / For The Times)

A player takes batting practice at Epi Guerrero’s baseball academy in Villa Mella, Dominican Republic. MLB and FBI investigators since 2008 have found that employees from several MLB teams working in the U.S. and Latin America were involved in skimming tens of thousands of dollars from contract bonuses intended for Dominican and Venezuelan players.  (Kena Betancur / For The Times)

Motorcycle is the preferred method of travel for many of the aspiring professional players, including these Angels prospects who are leaving the teams training academy in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic. The academy is located between an orphanage and a convent.  (Kena Betancur / For The Times)

Epi Guerrero, right, talks while a player takes batting practice at Guerrero’s academy in Villa Mella, Dominican Republic. It has been discovered that 540 Dominican major league and minor league players had a different identity or were a different age, including Angels pitcher Ervin Santana, who lowered his age by a year, and Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal, who said he was 19 when he was really 21 when he was with the Atlanta Braves.  (Kena Betancur / For The Times)

Dominican fans watch a game between the New York Mets and Seattle Mariners prospects during Dominican Summer League at the Mariners’ academy in Santo Domingo.  (Kena Betancur / For The Times)

Members of the Mets’ team push their bus out of a muddy field after losing a game to the Mariners’ team during the Dominican Summer League.  (Kena Betancur / For The Times)