German placed on the restricted list for alcohol abuse

Spock's Vulcan nerve pinch would have been the most effective, then he could have slept it off.  

This incident and his history are pretty good indicators that German is an addict.  Alcohol or other addictions are a damn tough journey to kick and then to remain sober.  You don't stop being an addict, any more than you stop being autistic or allergic to bee stings or having a mental illness.  Once in effect, it is a life-long physical and emotional struggle.  No one sets out to be an addict, just like no one sets out to require glasses or externally regulating blood sugar.  

This will not be easy, and the specter and magnetic force of taking a drink will be with him forever.  Often, addicts replace one addiction with another, hopefully one more conducive to good health, like the high after working out or a long run or a perseveration on helping the homeless or finding and collecting rare coins.  Imagine an addiction so strong that it interferes with the dream of playing Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees.  How many times in our youth did we fantasize of wearing the Pinstripes? Imagine the caustic influence and irresistible force required to obscure the realization of that dream and replace it with a bottle of booze.  It is unfathomable to someone without an insight into addiction or mental illness.  

I remember reading Voltaire's "Candide" in college, and one part has stayed with me in rote ever since:  "What could be more stupid than to persist in carrying a burden we constantly want to cast off, to hold our existence in horror yet cling to it nonetheless, to fondle the serpent that devours us until it has eaten our heart?"

I wish Domingo German, his family, and loved ones well and hope he can once again find balance in his life, with or without baseball.