{"id":387300,"date":"2026-07-05T21:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T21:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/387300\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T21:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T21:59:09","slug":"dodgers-edwin-diaz-insists-links-to-cockfighting-werent-illegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/387300\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers’ Edwin D\u00edaz insists links to cockfighting weren’t illegal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Edwin D\u00edaz<\/a> insists he did nothing wrong. <\/p>\n

After facing live batters for the first time Sunday since undergoing elbow surgery in April, the Dodgers\u2019<\/a> reliever pushed back against allegations linking him to illegal cockfighting<\/a> in Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been doing that before because, like the story said, that\u2019s legal in Puerto Rico,\u201d D\u00edaz said.<\/p>\n

USA Today published a story<\/a> in May highlighting social media posts<\/a> advertising cockfighting tournaments that picture D\u00edaz in his Dodgers uniform. The story also referenced a story in El Nuevo D\u00eda, the largest circulating newspaper in Puerto Rico, quoting D\u00edaz.<\/p>\n

No one from Major League Baseball has reached out to D\u00edaz about a possible suspension, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t reach out to me because I wasn\u2019t doing anything illegal,\u201d D\u00edaz said.<\/p>\n

In 2019, a federal law banning cockfighting took effect in Puerto Rico. Before the law, the blood sport had been made illegal in all 50 states, but not U.S. territories. Many Puerto Ricans saw the ban as an attack on their culture and vowed to defy the law.<\/p>\n

Puerto Rico responded by passing a law saying that it\u2019s legal to host cockfights as long as people don\u2019t export or import the animals or any goods or services related to cockfighting. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2021 declined to hear a challenge to the federal law brought by a group that argued Congress exceeded its power by applying the ban to Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n

Anyone found guilty of taking part in cockfighting faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Spectators could receive a one-year prison sentence.<\/p>\n

Still, some Puerto Ricans such as D\u00edaz view the topic as part of the island\u2019s history, initially brought to the Caribbean by 16th-century Spaniards when the island was first colonized.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a pastime I\u2019ve followed since I was a child,\u201d D\u00edaz told El Nuevo D\u00eda in March. <\/a> \u201cIt\u2019s legal in Puerto Rico, thank God. Otherwise, I wouldn\u2019t be here.\u201d <\/p>\n

Diaz is on track to return to the Dodgers after the All-Star break, although his exact return date remains unclear. His fastball felt good, so locating his slider was the next step toward his return.<\/p>\n

Times staff writer Hannah Fry contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Edwin D\u00edaz insists he did nothing wrong. After facing live batters for the first time Sunday since undergoing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1401,138391,426,8797,156159,3753,156161,33228,48,52,51,24108,47,50,49,156160,1459,18767,4747,3044,48938],"class_list":["post-387300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ban","tag-cockfighting","tag-dodgers","tag-edwin-diaz","tag-el-nuevo-dia","tag-federal-law","tag-illegal-cockfighting","tag-island","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-link","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-many-puerto-ricans","tag-part","tag-puerto-rico","tag-service","tag-story","tag-topic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}