Miguel Tejada is 33, not 31. We all know that now, thanks to his basically coerced confession.ESPN and a team of lawyers got their hands on a copy of Tejada's birth certificate from the Dominican Republic and showed it to Tejada.
His confession, unsurprisingly, came shortly thereafter:
"I was a poor kid," Tejada said. "I wanted to sign a professional contract, and that was the only way to do it. I didn't want or mean to do anything wrong. At the time, I was two years older than they thought."
Must have been a relief to get that off of his chest. But whatever weight Tejada feels lifted is sitting squarely on the shoulders of Astros general manager Ed Wade. Wade pulled the trigger on a deal sending five players to Baltimore for Tejada, only to learn the next day that Tejada's name was among those listed in the Mitchell Report.
Oops. Talk about fortuitous timing. Think Wade could have gotten a better deal by waiting an extra day or two?
And now this, which in fairness to Wade, was probably unavoidable from a team standpoint. It's too bad people don't have some sort of objective indicator -- you know, like rings on trees -- that prove how old they are. Instead, it was taken as a given that Tejada was 31.
Wade gave his best poker face in addressing the issue:
Oops. Talk about fortuitous timing. Think Wade could have gotten a better deal by waiting an extra day or two?
And now this, which in fairness to Wade, was probably unavoidable from a team standpoint. It's too bad people don't have some sort of objective indicator -- you know, like rings on trees -- that prove how old they are. Instead, it was taken as a given that Tejada was 31.
Wade gave his best poker face in addressing the issue:
“It was brought to our attention that the date we carry for Tejada, the year of birth, is incorrect,” Wade said. “We told Miguel we were going to go ahead and make the appropriate changes and all the information was put forward. But the fact of the matter is he’s playing like he was 25.”
True enough. Miggy is hitting .328 with 3 home runs and 11 RBI in the young season. But he's making $13 million this season and has a player option for another $13 million next season.
In his heart of hearts, you have to wonder if Wade is starting to hope that Tejada walks so that he can forget this deal ever happened.
In his heart of hearts, you have to wonder if Wade is starting to hope that Tejada walks so that he can forget this deal ever happened.
