Raul Mondesi headed to prison

Former LA Dodger slugger and arm cannon Raul Mondesi will spend 8 years in a DR prison for political corruption.

Raul Mondesi sentenced to eight years in prison for corruption

 

Wow. There's a name from the past. Can't say I'm entirely surprised, but I suspect Raul got himself in trouble just because he's... well, he's kind of dumb.

 

That fine in U.S. Dollars is about 1.3 million.

 

I was too lazy to look up the conversion. Thanks.

 

Never forget him just bailing on the pirates in 2004. He's up there with Derek Bell in the Mt. Rushmore of bad pirates of the 20 years of losing streak.

 

"Operation Shutdown" from a .173 hitter is one of my favorite moments of the last 20 years in baseball.

It's like if I declared myself off limits to Kate Upton.

 

That picture in the story makes him look like Denzel Washington with water on the brain.

 

This description achieves both peak hilarity and peak harshness. I salute you on your achievement. Amazing.

 

He was an all-time flake. Lived on a boat when he was with the Mets. Also stretched in the locker room while watching Judge Judy.

 

The Dodgers overpaid him hoping it would be a kick in the ass to motivate him to greatness. Worked just the opposite.

 

I covered Raul in Toronto, pretty intensively. We had a good relationship, I thought, and I wrote a couple of long features about him. I remember he wanted to buy a fire truck for his hometown.

We're on the road in Kansas City. I'm standing in the clubhouse with my arms folded in front of me, the universal posture of "sportswriter waiting to talk to someone in a room full of naked men." Raul comes up to me with a dress shirt in his hands.

"Can you iron this?"

I kind of laughed.

"What?" he said.

"Raul, I'm not ironing your shirt."

"Why not?"

"What?"

"Why not?"

I uncross my arms, now assuming the universal posture of "What the fuck are you talking about?" That also revealed my BBWAA pass.

"Raul..."

He looks at my pass, and his eyes go wide. He says sorry and rushes away.

I'd covered him for a year. He had seen my face, home and away, probably 300 times.

He thought I was a fucking Kansas City clubbie.

 

Bell's "operation shutdown" moment led to a
Great quote from board favorite Mark Madden, something along the lines of, "Derek Bell is a real life pirate. He lives on a boat and steals money for a living."