Dominican Ballplayers & Fraud

This could be something to look for in the future. There's a common inside joke around baseball about Dominican baseball players, you never really know their age. The infamous Julio Franco who played in MLB from 1982-2007 and is (at least according to the books) 49 years old was perhaps the biggest player this was joked about. It was never a mean joke, just a recognition by all that his reported/given age may not be in fact, his real age.

Well the imminently bitchy Miguel Tejada has admitted to his current team, the Houston Astros, that he is in fact 2 years older than he had admitted in the past.

Tejada has played in MLB since 1997, and at one point was considered one of the premiere Shortstops in the game, at one point signing a huge contract with the Baltimore Orioles in 2004 when they thought he was 28, when he knew he was really 30 years old. The late 20s if the prime of a baseball career, and in my opinion, he has knowingly committed fraud.

He only made this latest admission after his father filed a birth certificate and then the Dominicans tried to say his records were confidential to ESPN lawyers seeking information, when anyone knows that birth certificates are a matter of public record.

Tejada, knowingly entered into a contractual agreement with the Baltimore Orioles in 2004, knowing he was telling a lie. I guarantee somewhere in that lawyered-up contract he had to sign some type of statement that said he was fully telling the truth to the best of his knowledge.

This, is the essence of fraud. According to the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, fraud is defined as: deceit, trickery; specifically : intentional perversion of truth in order to induce another to part with something of value or to surrender a legal right.

My BoSox have a VERY popular Dominican player, David "Big Papi" Ortiz, but I think they too should probe his records to ensure his age is accurate. Moreover, there has been a dramatic increase of good Dominican players, and those too should be looked at with a keen eye and full records. While, allowing some financial repercussions if the player in question is found to be knowingly lying about his age when he signs a lucrative financial deal to play the game of baseball, when age can be an integral part of the cost-benefit-analysis.

Player X at 28 years old, should and would be paid more than Player Y at 30 years old simply because that's an extra 2 years of his prime as far as baseball players go.