Apparently Fox Sports Houston
did a documentary on Miguel Tejada which aired this weekend. I
didn’t see it, but listening to Bill Brown and Jim Deshaies talk about
Tejada and the documentary during the games with the New York Mets,
I couldn’t help but reach the conclusion that Miguel Tejada must be
one of the greatest human beings to ever grace the planet. I got
to thinking that if Jesus Christ were still walking the planet, that
He would kill Himself because there was just know way He could compete
with the greatness that is Miguel Tejada.
Yeah, they were piling it on
kind of deep, I guess you can say.
I like Brownie and JD. And I understand they work for the Astros. And I understand that
this was a program that was airing on Fox Sports Houston, which airs
the Astros games. But damn. This is Miguel Tejada they were
talking about.
I’m sure that Tejada was
born into, and escaped from, some pretty miserable circumstances.
And I’m sure he’s done a lot for the people from the Dominican Republic,
but then again, lots of major leaguers from the Dominican Republic have done lots of good for the island. So that doesn’t really make Tejada more exceptional than anybody else.
But what bugged me most about
this deification is the simple fact that Tejada’s a convicted liar.
Which is also one thing I can’t understand about his popularity here in
Houston. The guy’s been found to have lied about his age, and he lied
on government documents when it came to that age. And he lied about his
age for a large number of years until he was finally outed by ESPN — I
also still can’t quite understand why ESPN was the bad guy for
discovering the truth.
Let’s not forget that Tejada
was convicted earlier this year for lying to Congress as part of the
Congressional investigation into steroids and HGH. Tejada wasn’t
convicted for lying about his usage of HGH, but was convicted for lying
about what he knew about its use in baseball. And Tejada admitted
to having purchased $6,000 in HGH, but in a lie that would make Bill
Clinton’s “smoked but didn’t inhale” and George W. Bush’s
“WMD in Iraq” lies look well-thought out, Tejada claimed that he
didn’t actually use the HGH, though he did pay for it, and he did
receive the HGH.
Despite this, Tejada is seen
as a pillar of the Astros, and the community. Yet the team has done
everything possible to distance itself from Roger Clemens. I’m not a
Clemens fan, but it should be pointed out that Clemens, unlike Tejada,
has neither admitted to using or purchasing HGH or steroids, but that
he has also not been convicted of any crime. And Clemens, unlike
Tejada, actually made a positive influence on the Astros. The Astros
would have never made the World Series without Clemens and fellow
cheater Andy Pettitte. But with Tejada, the Astros and fans feel that
being a mediocre ball club is a rather great accomplishment.
So knowing this, I was a bit
disappointed in the glorification of Miguel Tejada that I heard this
weekend. And despite what was said about Tejada, I really think
he’s closer to being this guy than he is to being this guy, the best efforts of the Astros, Bill
Brown and Jim Deshaies, and Fox Sports Houston notwithstanding.
This article appears in Jul 23-29, 2009.
