After listening to the opening of today’s steroid hearings, I’m really wondering if Drayton McLane is questioning the whole decision to trade for Miguel Tejada. Especially since Congress has called for the Justice Department to investigate whether Tejada lied before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee when he was interviewed in connection with the Rafael Palmeiro steroids matter.
How can Drayton keep with his Good Guys campaign for the Astros when one of his Good Guys is under a Congressional investigation? And who’s going to play shortstop while Tejada is in jail? Nice move, Drayton. Nice move. See, maybe if you would’ve taken a little time to seriously contemplate your options when hiring a GM, instead of rushing the decision, you might have had a real GM with some balls around to talk you out of this deal. Then again, you do have Geoff Blum sitting on the bench, and he’s a combination of former shortstop Adam Everett and current jailbird-to-be Miguel Tejada: he hits like Everett and he fields like Tejada.
And seeing as how Drayton threw GM Ed Wade under the bus when Drayton said he had no knowledge of Tejada’s possible implication in the steroids scandal, I imagine today must be a really uncomfortable day to be Ed Wade around the Astros offices.
And I’m betting that some of Drayton’s former employees, like Bill Wood, Gerry Hunsicker and Larry Dierker, are enjoying Drayton’s predicament. Just a little case of karma finally kicking in.
What makes thing more interesting today is the word that while Roger Clemens may indeed meet with Congressional investigators before meeting with Congress next month, he might not be meeting with those investigators while under oath. Which just might be the first correct thing that Clemens’s lawyer Rusty Hardin has done since being hired. Seeing as how Clemens can’t tell the truth when he’s not under oath, you don’t want to put him under oath. It’s bad enough that the IRS is probably already after Rocket, but I can’t see how having Congress come after you for lying is any better.
But as to Tejada, why do I suspect that he’s about to forget how to speak English? Or even worse, why do I suspect he’s about to have some severe VISA problems and not be able to get out of the Dominican Republic? – John Royal
This article appears in Jan 10-16, 2008.
