SAN FRANCISCO -- At least one of Miguel Tejada's former teammates doesn't believe that he tipped opponents off to pitches while playing for the A's in 2001, as reported this weekend by the New York Times."He's not that kind of player, I don't think," Barry Zito told FanHouse on Sunday morning. "I don't think he's the kind of player who would take his Latin pride over his teammates."
Zito, who played with Tejada in Oakland from 2000 to 2003, said he did not even remember the reported meeting in which the A's discussed their suspicions of Tejada. Zito suggested that he might not have been involved in the meeting if the was the starting pitcher that day.
Tejada, now with the Astros, denied the allegations in 2001, and again on Sunday to mlb.com.
"I've never tipped pitches," said Tejada. "I love this game and that's not the way I play it. I'm a proud player. I would never do such a thing. It's tough to get a hit. And for me to tip pitches to anybody, that's crazy. I play for my team."The Times cited several players from the '01 A's who recalled the meeting. They said there was no proof, but players became suspicious that, in lopsided games, Tejada was helping his friends by tipping pitches and failing to go after balls they hit. The story specifically mentioned a series against the Blue Jays in which Tejada and fellow Dominican Tony Batista each had big games.
More significant in the eyes of some of the players was an incident in the second game of the series. Tejada did not get to an easy ground ball Batista hit off reliever Mark Guthrie with the Athletics leading, 8-2. When the inning was over, A's players fumed on the bench.
Former A's infielder Frank Menechino told the Times that veteran Ron Gant helped calm the situation by bringing the issue to the forefront."I think Ron Gant calmed it down before it snowballed into anything big," said Menechino, now the hitting instructor for the Class AA Trenton Thunder. "Like: 'Hey, man, we can't worry about what the other teams are doing in this league. But we can't pull the Dominican guys out of our team and suspect them of anything until we catch them.' He basically calmed everything down. Everything was fine after that. I seriously can't prove, say, yes or no, that guys were doing it. But who knows?"Similar allegations were levied against Alex Rodriguez in Selena Roberts' book, "A-Rod."
