Puig Can't Drive 55 - #Dodgers

A white Mercedes allegedly traveling 110 mph has flattened the Dodgers with the organization's most frightening, frustrating truth.

For the second time this year, Puig has been charged with reckless driving, after his arrest Saturday on an Everglades-choked stretch of South Florida highway known as Alligator Alley. Puig was allegedly traveling 110 mph in a 70-mph zone, a startling pace even on a flat stretch of road built for speed.

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Puig has now been clocked at least 40 mph over the speed limit twice this year. He was allegedly going 97 mph in a 50-mph zone in Chattanooga, Tenn., in April, resulting in charges that were eventually dismissed when he agreed to perform community service. The arrests fit into a pattern of reckless living exhibited by the 23-year-old outfielder — both on the field and off — since he defected from Cuba and signed a $42-million contract two summers ago.

"He plays hard, he eats hard, he drives hard, he does everything hard," said Tim Bravo, a high school teacher who was employed by the Dodgers last summer to serve as Puig's full-time companion and mentor.

In response, the Dodgers simply swallow hard, if only because they're not sure what else they can do.

The Dodgers thus reacted to Saturday's news with a sigh, a silent prayer of thanks that nobody got hurt, and a public statement in which the harshest words were "very disappointed." Then they resumed doing the one consistent thing they have done since Puig first donned a Dodger uniform: holding their breath.

"I talked to him on the phone and I told him, we want you to have a fulfilling life, but you've got to understand that boundaries exist," General Manager Ned Colletti said Sunday. "Like it or not, a lot of young people look up to him, and I asked him, what kind of message are you sending them with this?"