OK, maybe I do.
Faithful followers of this here blog will remember a question I asked on June 28, 2008. I have cut and pasted below:
2. ALL SMILES: Including a 2-for-4 game with a 3-run triple yesterday at GCL Cardinals, INF Smiley Gonzalez has posted multi-hit and multi-RBI efforts in 3 of 4 games to begin the season...overall, he is batting .444 with 2 doubles a triple and a team-leading 7 RBI...the 18-year-old signed with the Nationals as a non-drafted free agent July 2, 2006.
The question - is this dude really 18?
I wish I could tell you I was brilliant or had great sources or something cool like that. Nope. This was just a hunch, a something-didn't-smell-right kind of thing. Luck, I suppose you could call it, but my b.s. meter went crazy from the start on this guy.
It's not the first age scandal involving a player. It won't be the last. Who was the Brave a few years back who had a few years added to his age? Was it Furcal? There was a big fuss when he got picked up for underage drinking, if memory serves. Turns out he wasn't underaged.
The real question in this Smiley-isn't-Smiley debacle isn't whether heads will or should roll. Think Uncle Stan and El Jefe are pissed? That's a lot of cabbage. Someone (my money is on Rijo) is going down.
The real question is, from a competitive standpoint, does it matter? Who gives a rat's red one how old the guy is or what his name is IF he can play? Can he play? Does anybody know?
One of the interns here is a former Nats farmhand who got like six at-bats last year in the GCL. He says the guy is legit. He also had no clue about this story until I told him. Or at least he acted like he had no clue. Someone obviously knew something!
2 comments:
Good point on the fake name issue with immigration.
Do they have a way to get any money back if he can no longer play in the U.S.?
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