Odds and Ends: Tejada, Howard, Johnson

Tejada was a fraud before this incident... steroids, hgh, etc.

Sure he's sorry... Sorry we found out!

What ESPN did with Tejada was bush league. They should have been upfront with him. Further, you really can't blame a 19 year old, dirt poor kid for lying about his age when other teams are faking the ages of other players (remember Adrian Beltre?). No matter the age, the guy can hit and defend his position, even now.

I didn't look carefully at the title.

My first thought was what could Howard Johnson be doing that would be of interest on MLBTradeRumors.

That said, I did own Tejada in my AL-only Extrapolated Runs formula league where he netted me some crucial late-season points necessary to secure a championship. So I'll have to lower the ceiling of my criticisms a bit. I certainly hope that Tejada and his agent "come clean" and put this media fire out quickly by negotiating a sensible contract modification with team ownership. If Tejada is as good a swindler as some of you say he is, he'll be able to lock his agent into a side deal requiring the agent to remedy whatever losses he incurs by working out a modification right now by paying Tejada a straight up cash payment or a promise to attain certain minimum results in future negotiations with teams as Tejada's agent after his current contract expires. I'm sure the agent and his attorney (if he isn't one himself as many are) will figure out a way to make this problem go away.

Tropicana is kinder to LHB than McCafee/Network Associates. The Rays have improved their DH platoon. The key word here is "platoon." So I'm taking a more conservative view of the win-now theory. If "now" can be defined as this year AND next year, then I can believe the theory.

its a 'win now' move in the extent the Rays are now doing whatever they can to improve that team in the short term. They have a short term focus, compared to say Baltimore who probably couldn't care less.

They are starting to send the message to the players that we think you can do something special today.

Its a great sight to see.

I don't think anyone actually thinks this is about winning this year.

Tejada's actual birthdate was on his official government documentation, including his green card. If the Orioles were so lazy and negligent that they didn't even bother to check the official documentation of a man they signed to multi-million dollar deal, then they don't really deserve any sympathy. Anyone who knows a lick about business practices knows that you should always check out the background info on a person you plan to hire.

Furthermore, does anyone honestly believe that the team that signed Albert Belle to his massive contract wouldn't have still signed Tejada for six years if they knew his acutal year of birth was 1974? Let's be real here, the Orioles were so poorly run back then that they would have have probably given him 6 years if he was born in '72. Hell, they re-signed Trachsel this year--let's not pretend they don't make dumb moves when it comes to veterans.

ARusonis, you're reaching for "the forbidden Snickers bar" (see prior comment above) with your "defense" of Tejada's ongoing deception.
O's mgmt relied on official information from the MLB and the "media guide" on Tejada's age. In the ESPN "sneak attack," Tejada gets flustered and makes the incredulous statement that his official age as documented by the Dominican Republic's state government is "my personal stuff." Sorry, Tejada, but your age and other information like your name for instance are not your "personal stuff." They are on the public record and in the public domain. Did any of you watch that video clip? The contrast between the slick liar Tejada and the caught-with-his-pants-down flustered Tejada was classic! For Tejada to sit there in the ESPN interview and tell his scripted lie for the thousandth time (and this time to millions of television viewers, fans and impressionable children) with all the calmness and assurance of an expert poker player, and then get all flustered when confronted with documentary evidence that he was not telling the truth just then...well, that was classic. As Tejada said, I'm 32! Any mature man of age 32 who is not mentally handicapped should be able to handle a serious question from a reporter. Tejada had several alternative ways to react to this question besides getting flustered and leaving the interview.

First, he could have continued what he does best (i.e. lying). He could have replied that the birth certificate information was false and that he knew that the Domincan government had made a mistake and that he had tried several times to get them to correct it but the bureaucracy is so slow that they never got round to fixing it. That's just one imaginative (and deceptive) answer Tejada could have given. It's been 15 years since he lied to the A's organization in 1993 about this issue. He's had 15 years to develop a few ready-to-use b.s. stories to counter such claims as ESPN raised. Remember, before the reporter "ambushed" Tejada, he asked Miggy a direct question and Tejada looked directly into the reporter's eyes and replied with a dishonest answer. If anyone "ambushed" anyone here, it was Tejada who made a conscious decision to derail an otherwise good interview with a dishonorable and deplorable lie.

Second, he could have done what most honorable men do when being called out on some lie they told. Just say I prefer not to talk about it and suggest another line of conversation. Continue to deflect the questions until the reporter gives up and goes onto new material. Instead Miggy reacts emotionally, makes the amazing claim that his age information is "personal" and hence protected private information, and then quits the interview in a huff. At age 32 (whoops, I mean 30) this fully developed and mature man still shows signs of behaving like a bratty child. He had no right to act indignant immediately after having told a baldfaced lie and being called out on it.

It's all about the sequence of events here. Had the reporter started off the interview by showing Miggy the document first before he asked him his birth age, then Miggy would have probably not opened his big mouth to tell a lie. He could have simply said this interview is over and left.
So long as Barry Bonds is getting the scapegoat treatment for everything that is wrong about baseball, we should not let the rest of these overly-pampered and babied liars with flexible scruples get off easy. They need to learn some social responsibility.

I think maybe the A's were in the best position to verify Tejada's age and perhaps knew about the discrepancy but consciously chose to ignore it in the face of Miggy's incredible upside. Perhaps the O's should blame the A's for this. It would be the basis for yet another AL team rivalry. And as we all know, these rivalries help add excitement and pizazz to the game.

Yet again this another sorry display by ESPN and their reporters just like here in Arkansas when they punished the Razorbacks because they hired Bobby Petrino. The only difference is Arthur Blank and his Home Depot sponsorship to ESPN influenced that. This time they took a stab at an unexpecting man. It was the most chicken s#@! thing I have ever seen. Even though Tejada may have lied, it's not ESPN's responsibility to uncover that. They could've at least reported to the MLB first. But that's an absurd idea and who the hell am I to say.