So saith the Houston Press.
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.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
