Bent Corner

It turns out that when Miguel Tejada signed his first professional baseball contract in the Dominican Republic, he was 19 and not 17 as he claimed. He’s been lying about his age ever since.

At least to Major League Baseball. According to the Houston Astros — the team he plays for now — his green card, his driver’s license, and everything else that he uses in his personal life shows that he was born in 1974. Everything in baseball shows that he was born in 1976.

The thing I don’t understand is how his correct date of birth appears on his green card, yet none of the teams he has played for knew his correct age. Not only do they have to look at his green card, I believe they have to retain a copy of his green card.

Why didn’t anyone look at it?

If he has been lying about his age, what else could he be lying about? In 2005 Rafael Palmeiro was suspended for ten days after testing positive for steroids. Acording to ESPN, Palmeiro implicated Miguel Tejada to baseball’s arbitration panel saying that Tejada was responsible for his positive test. Palmeiro claimed the only thing he had ever injected himself with was vitamin B12 supplied by Tejada.

Could the B12 have really been the potent anabolic steroid stanozolol?

I’ll be totally honest and admit that I never liked Miguel Tejada. He always seemed too fat to be a shortstop. I thought he swung at the first pitch too much. He had decent numbers. I guess. I don’t think he was worth what the Orioles were paying him, but what else is new? I was glad when they traded him to the Astros.