Fifteen youthful minor league players have accused Luis Rosa, a baseball talent scout, of taking advantage of their "desperate" desire to play baseball in America, and demanding sexual favors as a condition for try-outs.

Right handed pitcher, Yan Carlos Ravelo, 20, filed the first accusation earlier this year, saying "Luis Rosa took advantage of our poverty and our desperation for an American visa to make us his slaves."

Rosa, 51, is considered a scouting star in his own right. He has also been accused of embezzling players' salaries and signing bonuses. Rosa has scouted for such American teams as the Texas Rangers, the San Francisco Giants, the Chicago Cubs, the San Diego Padres, and the Seattle Mariners. His career has lasted approximately 20 years.

A former Hall of Fame star of the Giants, Juan Marichal, currently the Dominican Republic's Secretary of Sports and Recreation, is facing demands, as a result of the charges against Rosa, that he place tighter controls over scouts who sign up and train youthful players.

Rosa, an American citizen, in an attempt to clear his name, returned to the Dominican Republic two months ago where he was arrested and now awaits judgment in a jail cell. He says that his accusers are motivated by revenge for not being among the chosen few who go on to baseball stardom.

"They just didn't cut it," he told reporters, explaining that he had no recourse but to deny them the American visas they so desired.

Two of the youthful players have attempted to extricate themselves from the legal tangles into which their statements have thrust them. One, aged 20, told reporters that he'd invented the story in hopes of making money.

A former Giants star, Joaquin Andujar, a pitching coach, disputed the boys' retractions, however, and said, that he'd heard from one that he'd been rejected as a pitcher because Luis Rosa had warned that unless he accompanied him to bed he'd be disallowed on the playing field.

Scouts sign up prospective players when they reach their sixteenth year.