Congress Asks Justice Department to Investigate Tejada

To be honest, I'm surprised it took this long. When you read the report, Tejada could be considered right at the middle of the whole thing over the past decade. I found it hard to believe that he was just going to walk away unscathed.

 

I gotta say...that just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy heading into Spring Training.

 

why the hell does Congress care so damn much?

 

Are you kidding? What else do they have to do up in D.C.?

Social Security....
Health Care Crisis......
Education way behind other countries......
Global Warming........

Eh..... lets focus on this steroids thing in MLB. Much more important.

"Hey Mitchell.... What do you have going on for the next few months?"

 

This is out of control now.

Shawn Merriman used, got suspended, and ended up in a Nike commercial.

With baseball its a witch hunt based on hearsay and circumstantial evidence.

Fine, we all "know" some guys used. Except very few actually popped positive for anything...

Test the players, suspend the ones that pop, move the **** on.

There are bigger issues to deal with.

 

This is entirely too level-headed a course of action for MLB, congress, sports media or sports fan.

 

I agree with all of that...everything you just said.

I'm baffled how it's so overlooked in football...and soooooo villified in baseball.

 

^^^ WERD ^^^^

 

I just wonder if this opens him up to a perjury charge. Regardless, I don't think this bodes well for the Astros.

 

Lying to Congress is a huge no-no. This has nothing to do with Tejada taking drugs - it has to do entirely with perjury to Congress. Unfortunately in Tejada's case, it goes beyond hearsay with the documented checks and such.

This is no different than the Feds pursuing Bonds but not Sheffield or Giambi.

 

Miguel Tejada used, didn't get suspended, got an MVP, and then lied to Congress.

 

I agree with this, too. Perjury is serious business. If he lied under oath, he needs to be held accountable.

But this is taking on such a grand scale.

 

Did we just trade like 18 guys for one drama-filled summer followed by a guy going to prison? Sounds melodramatic, but if the paper trail Mitchell claims to have is really that concrete, it would seem there is much more evidence of lying against Tejada than there was against Barroid.

 

Prove it...with more than just he hearsay of a couple of guys who are going to jail. I'm not saying he didn't. As a matter of fact, I'm fairly sure he did. Unfortunately, all Congress has to go on is the Mitchell Report, which is proving to be more and more useless by the day.

Also, Tejada has not, to our knowledge or anyone else's, failed a drug test.

 

with tejada they have cancelled checks, though. there's more on tejada then clemens, because there's a bit of a paper trail.

of course they only potentially prove he BOUGHT steroids...not that he used them.

 

Right, they have cancelled checks that Adam Piatt *says* were for steroids. Piatt also said he had no knowledge of Tejada actually using anything.

And Max, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there a pretty big legal distinction between lying to congress while not under oath (which is still illegal but rarely prosecuted, as far as I can tell), and lying to congress under oath (perjury, big huge fat no-no)?

Do we know if Tejada was under oath when he spoke re: the Palmeiro situation?

 

Like Buck said, all there is are checks to a clubhouse attendant. There is nothing concrete. All Tejada really has to do is keep saying, "It was B-12." and there is little anyone can do about it.

 

Huge distinction....I'm guessing he was under oath, but I don't know.

Another good point...proving what those checks were for to begin with. He didn't write "performance enhancing drugs" in the memo line, did he??

 

lying to congress is no big deal.

- AG