Tejada, who was born in Bani, Dominican Republic, was originally signed by Oakland Athletics scout and Hall of Fame pitcher Juan Marichal as a non-drafted free agent on July 17, 1993, at the age of 17, but did not begin play until the following season. As it turns out, Tejada was really 19. Tejada eventually made his debut with the A's on Aug. 27, 1997.
Tejada's reason for the discrepancy was rather simple.
"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."
Please forgive me. I'm just a simple caveman. Your modern ways frighten and confuse me. But where I come from, anyone who induces me to sign a six-year $72M contract based on a lie regarding the most critical component to valuing a player's performance going forward (i.e. age) gets their butt sued for fraud.
Of course, given that the person who gave him that contract is a big fancy lawyer who should know better, I suppose his failure to conduct due diligence evens things out.
3 comments:
Someone should probably let Steve "Miguel Tejada is the best shortstop in Orioles history" Phillips know...
The article quotes Ed Wade as saying "His green card, his driver's license, everything that he uses personally shows '74 as his date of birth."
Don't the Astros, as his employer, have to inspect and make a copy of his documentation (green card, driver's license, passport, etc.) before hiring him? Shouldn't they have caught this then?
Well, after reading a bit more about this today, one gets the impression that his age was an open secret -- everyone has known for a long time -- and that this is coming out now because someone in the media or something got a hold of it.
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