Right. There was a huge group of latin players, mostly Dominican, who had their ages upped (Wandy Rodriguez/Eny Cabreja is the notable one locally) in the couple of years following that. Haven't heard much since, which is why I'm curious who these multiple players are that have been busted in the past couple of years.
I agree with this. Verbatim. I'm surprised that baseball doesn't do simple background checks that would determine public information about their players, like a DOB reflected on 2 public documents, a driver's license and a birth certificate.
Now E:60 needs to go find evidence that the As/Os owners and front office folk knew about Tejada's real age and ambush them, too. Like the steroids problem, the players are getting too much of the blame. It's the media's fault.
Certainly true - but I have a hard time feeling sorry for Tejada too. He lied to a lot of people, both initially (understandably) and then later on when signing a big contract. ESPN probably should have done it better; Tejada probably should have been more forthcoming. But ultimately, it's important for the Astros that they found out.
Indeed. The actions of the two have to be viewed within their separate contexts. Tejada lied, and he should have known, especially after the conundrum a few years back, that the gig would be up one day. To say ESPN was bush league--which they were--is not to beg any sympathy for Tejada. Yep. Bargaining power! Honestly, unless Tejada at 35 looks like Biggio at 39, I'd like to see him stay around another couple of years after '09.
Is this sarcasm? The owners and FO have no reason to have willingly deceived anyone about a player's age. The latin players who lie to make themselves younger are doing it to make them look more attractive to scouts. There is no complicity from the owners of the FO in this instance. They hate this.
True. But at the same time, he's been a successful player. The only team that would bother to look into it would be the team he is playing for. And why would the front office of a team want to get one of their own best players kicked out of the league or suspended? If he had been playing terribly the past few seasons, who is to say that a source may not have "anonymously" reported something about his documentation, leading to the team "investigating it" and thus negating his contract?
Except that his age being wrong wouldn't get him kicked out of the league, suspended, or cause his contract to be voided.
As Major points out below me, there are no ramifications (or there have been none historically) for a player in this situation. Once the contract is signed, it's signed. Baseball contracts are the most concrete contracts in sports. So like I said, there is no complicity with the owners or FO people in this. They don't benefit in any way and can actually be hurt by it. The poster who said that they should investigate owners in this was being foolish.
To me the funniest part is that Tejada said he wanted to get this off his chest and told the Astros because he wanted to be a man or whatever. HAHAHA He got busted and wanted to tell them before the story broke. This is like a cheating husband getting arrested at a w**** house and then telling his wife before his trial date and saying "I just wanted to tell you the truth." Only not as bad.
I don't have an issue with ESPN finding out and reporting his true age, my issue with the whole thing is the way they tricked him and sprung the birth certificate on him. Beyond that, it was a favor for the Astros.
On camara, no less. I agree with you. Precisely--that has been my impression of Tejada in this the entire time. It also erases whatever shred of doubt I had left as to whether he did steroids. Dude is obviously very comfortable with lying in any context.
All his official paperwork had his real DOB. How could they not know? Maybe they didn't say anything because they didn't want the bad PR for signing him. Sound familiar?
I was watching a preview of that ESPN show E60. Next Tuesday they have a special on Tejada. He gets up and walks out of the interview so I guess this show is the one who confronts him about his age and is why he come clean. Or it could be about steriods. Either way, he looked pissed and walked out.
It's about the age thing. They preface it as, "The shady life of Miguel Tejada". What a bunch of crap.
Hahaha...come work with me on la frontera. Unless you are an AUSA and see it first hand don't take the media or some talking head's word for it. 18 U.S.C. 1028 - which can lead to 18 U.S.C 911 - and hopefully 8 U.S.C 1325..or..26
