Miguel Tejada was sentenced to one year of probation for misleading Congress about the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle writes that Tejada only regrets getting caught.

Nice going, Miggy. Way to represent The Good Guys.

Incidentally, who decided a $5,000 fine was any way to punish a guy making $13 million? Couldn’t the feds have ordered Tejada to pay whatever the government spent proving he’s a liar?

Anyway, about eight seconds after Tejada’s plea-bargain agreement was announced, the Astros issued a statement saying how happy they were to have this whole thing behind them.

In other words, let’s all forget that this guy is a cheat and that we got fleeced on this trade.
As for Tejada, he hasn’t exactly been forthright. He has confessed to what he got caught doing and nothing more. And there appears to be more there.

He played the contrite card when he showed up at spring training until someone asked about his use of steroids and HGH.

He bristled and said he wasn’t going to talk about it. Now that’s coming clean.

He doesn’t have to admit anything. The Mitchell Report does it for him. It’s right there on page 201 along with photo copies of checks to ex-teammate Adam Piatt for $3,100 and $3,200.
Piatt said he provided Tejada with steroids and human growth hormone, but he has no way of knowing if Tejada actually used the stuff.

Unfortunately Justice is right and even more unfortunate is that this is the way it’s going to be when it comes to the steroid era in baseball. The players that used will deny or only own up to what they were caught with. The owners will continue to look the other way and hide under the umbrella that is Bud Selig. And Selig will continue to act like the victim in all of this.

The players, owners and Selig will continue to ask to move on. And eventually, the fans will probably oblige because we’re not going to stop going to the parks.

Astros’ shortstop Miguel Tejada has been charged with lying to congressional investigators about the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.

Federal prosecutors accused Tejada of making misrepresentations to congressional staffers during an interview in a Baltimore hotel room focusing on the prevalence of steroids in the game.

The charge came in “a criminal information,” a document that can be filed only with the defendant’s consent and usually signals a plea deal is near. Tejada, who now plays for the Houston Astros, is scheduled to appear at 11 a.m. tomorrow in U.S. District Court in Washington, court officials said.
Prosecutors did not charge Tejada with lying about allegations concerning his own steroids use.

Instead, they accuse Tejada of giving false statements to congressional staffers about his conversations with another player about steroids and human growth hormone.

Tejada faces a maximum penalty of a year in jail, but advisory sentencing guidelines call for a sentence of probation to six months behind bars.

These federal investigators don’t f-around. They’ve nailed Tejada, Michael Vick and are presumably zeroing in on Barry Bonds. It’s almost kind of comical that these athletes think they can lie to federal investigators the way they do fans and reporters.