Former Atlanta Braves Raul Mondesi sentenced to jail time

Why becomes the question on my mind…

Individuals — who are not athletes — wake up and go to work from 9am-5pm each day to try and make a living.  Professional athletes, however, the majority of them don’t have to worry about their bank accounts getting low.

So then the question becomes, ‘Why do athletes continue to try to figure out ways to increase their bank account, or do scandalous activities off the field?”  Well, it happened again, this time in the case of former Atlanta Braves player Raul Mondesi.

The court’s decision in the Dominican Republic has become public news as they sentenced Mondesi to eight years in prison for corruption and mishandling of public funds while he served as mayor of his hometown of San Cristobal.

Wow…

Mondesi has been under house arrest since February 2017 while waiting out this trial.  It’s now official and he’ll be heading to the pen.

The court also gave Mondesi a pretty hefty fine (well maybe not) of $1.27 million for defrauding more than $6 million from 2010 to 2016 — his time serving as mayor of San Cristobal.

The 46-year-old retired from major league baseball in 2005 as a member of the Atlanta Braves and got into politics in the Dominican Republic shortly after.

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Not a Brave for long

Raul Mondesi played his final year — well only 41 games — in the Major Leagues in 2005 for the Atlanta Braves.  Being it was toward the end of his career, he only hit .211, with four home runs and 17 RBI’s.  So to say he had a productive career in Atlanta, it is not really the factor.  But, Mondesi will forever be linked to the Braves when people talk about his career in the majors, in both the good way and bad way.

Mondesi played in the MLB for 13 years mostly as a member of the LA Dodgers.  He won the 1994 Rookie of the Year, won two Gold Gloves and made the 1995 All-Star game.  He also played with the Blue Jays, Yankees, Diamondbacks, Pirates, and Angels.

Mondesi was fined 60 million pesos — or the equivalent of $1.27 million US.

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Why did Mondesi and his three other staff guys — who also got sentenced — do this?  No one will probably ever know.  One thing for sure, it’s an awful situation and one that we as regular individuals never wants to see.  He had career earnings of $66,470,000 over his thirteen year career.  Was it greed?  Who knows.