Miguel Tejada's life has been chronicled closely for over a decade in the United States and his native Dominican Republic, where he's referred to as the "nation's ballplayer."
Yet on Thursday morning was the first time the former American League Most Valuable Player and four-time All-Star acknowledged his real age to the world. The Astros' new shortstop is actually 33, two years older than he's listed in the club's media guide and other baseball records.
"I'm a poor kid that wanted to be a professional big leaguer," he explained as he discussed his reasoning for claiming he was 17 instead of 19 to sign with the Oakland A's in 1993. "I was thinking that was the only way that I could help my family. By the time we did it, it wasn't because we wanted to do anything wrong to be a professional. "The scout just did it just because at that time I was two years older than I (told the A's). And to play in the Dominican Summer League you got to be like 17. That's why he changed the year. Because the only change is the year."
Tejada and the Astros revealed the news after ESPN surprised him at Citizens Bank Park with a copy of his birth certificate, which the network obtained in the Dominican.
He isn't the only one that lies about his age. I think EL Duque is at least 40 years old. Now when it comes to his contract, this may hurt him from getting a long term deal. I wonder if any other baseball playes will shy away from ESPN, because they threw him curve ball.
__________________ Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.
Miguel Tejada's admission that he is 33, two years older than previously believed, reopens the discussion from five years ago, when the federal government cracked down on players entering the country on work visas with falsified identity documents. In baseball terms, age is more than just a number; it is an independent variable that figures into all sorts of projections on what a player is worth.
Age comes into play anytime a team has to figure out the value of a player -- which is to say, all the time, since smart teams are constantly re-evaluating the players in their own systems. When a player signs his first pro contract, his age matters tremendously because it affects the amount of physical projection and mental development that may still be ahead for the player. A high school senior who graduates at the age of 17, as did 2007 first-rounder Jason Heyward, has more potential value than a typical high school senior, while one who graduates at 19 or older has less.
When Oakland initially signed Tejada at what the A's believed was age 16, they would have valued him given how a 16-year-old with his body type and skill set typically develops. An 18-year-old, which is in fact how old Tejada was, would have less development ahead of him.
The A's never included Tejada in trade talks, but it's conceivable that his age could have led them to value him improperly while he was a prospect. Several major dump trades in the late 1990s and early 2000s went south for the team acquiring the prospects because one or more of those players turned out to be older than expected.
The Marlins acquired Pablo Ozuna in 1998 in a package for Edgar Renteria, only to learn later that Ozuna was four years older than they thought. The Marlins were stung again in their December 1999 acquisition of Brad Penny from Arizona; outfielder Abraham Nunez, who looked like a major prospect after hitting .273/.382/.492 in High Desert (high Class A ball) at age 19, was actually 22 at the time. And Oakland sent Mario Encarnacion to Colorado in July 2001 in the three-way trade that involved Jermaine Dye, but Encarnacion turned out to be two years older than believed.
When Tejada reached free agency, he would have been just as much in demand if his real age had been public knowledge, although it's conceivable Baltimore wouldn't have offered him six years. The age change hurts Houston significantly, because now we know that Tejada is well out of his peak years, typically ages 27-32 for hitters, making his projections for 2008 and 2009 worse than they were with his incorrect age. But Tejada will suffer more when his contract is up because he'll enter the market as he prepares to enter his age-36 season, facing questions about how many years he has left, how long he'll remain at shortstop and whether his famous durability -- with just one stint on the disabled list in his career, due to a broken hand -- can continue.
Unless he performs at a very high level in 2008 and 2009, he'll look at shorter-duration offers for less money after the 2009 season as a result of this revelation.
Watching the interview when they surprised him with this was classic...horribly guilty...
__________________
If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there are men on base. ~Dave Barry
When you play this game 20 years, go to bat 10,000 times, and get 3,000 hits, you know what that means? You've gone 0 for 7,000. ~Peter Edward Rose
I'm no different from anybody else with two arms, two legs, and 4200 hits. ~Peter Edward Rose
Tejada Lied About His Age?
Tejada Lied About His Age?
Linear Mode
