If there were any thoughts that Miguel Tejada is ready to move on after the tumult of the past five months, that the Baltimore Orioles will report to spring training this week knowing their star shortstop is at peace, they ended here last month inside Estadio Quisqueya.
Pacing the length of a training room not much bigger than a walk-in closet, Tejada forcefully defended his actions in the Rafael Palmeiro steroid scandal, saying his reputation has been unfairly damaged, and that his trade demand, which embarrassed an organization already hoping to regain legitimacy, was justified because it was meant to improve the team.
Tejada has been under scrutiny since it became known in September that Palmeiro had told baseball investigators that his positive steroid test result might have been caused by an injection of a vitamin supplement Tejada gave him. On Nov. 10, a report from the House Government Reform Committee on Palmeiro's perjury investigation detailed Tejada's heavy use of injectable vitamin B-12. Though the report said Tejada's actions were considered suspicious, the shortstop was not investigated because the probe was solely centered on Palmeiro.
"How is it possible that everything I've worked so hard for has been damaged because I used B-12?" said Tejada, drowning out the buzz from low-hung fluorescent lights. "I've been in baseball for nine years now and my name is tarnished now because of this? Why? I know I am good role model. And up until now I've proven to be as such. The only time I've had a problem is now. And the only thing I did was to try to help a friend by giving him B-12, and to tell him how to use it. I didn't commit any crime."
Tejada was defiant during the interview prior to the start of Game 6 of the Dominican Winter League finals. Gesturing often, Tejada delivered what amounted to a verbal Palmeiro-style finger jab at Congress. It was perhaps the same thing Tejada has done in the Orioles' dugout when a game had been slipping away. But it is rare for Tejada to show such emotion off the field. The fervor in his voice caused several of the team's trainers to grow silent as they watched him.
"The same thing I'm telling you now, is the same thing I will say in other interviews and the same thing I will tell Congress and the president," Tejada said. "To Congress, to whoever, it's time to leave me alone because I didn't do anything wrong. Tell that to everyone."
Two unidentified Orioles players told the committee that they injected Tejada with B-12 as many as 90 times, according to the report. Tejada testified that he received a dozen B-12 shots from teammates. In the interview here, Tejada said he never lied to Congress, and that any discrepancies came because he does not count his B-12 injections.
"They can check me all the times they want," Tejada said. "I have nothing to hide. You tell Congress that the only thing I've ever done is work hard. I've never had the need to do anything illegal. I don't understand why things are being fabricated about me. They checked me and they checked the B-12 and both were fine.
"My name has been tarnished now and it's not fair. I haven't done anything to anybody. I just used B-12. For something that I did for a friend why should I be treated as a criminal? I'm not a person who likes to speak much, but I want people to know that this affects me and makes me feel bad, all of these rumors that are out there about me."
The committee also reviewed the results of all the drug tests given to Tejada by Major League Baseball since it began drug-testing players in 2003 and found no positive test results.
Tejada said he would continue to use B-12. When asked about the use of injectable B-12, several doctors interviewed for this story said the vitamin does nothing more than serve as a placebo.
"I've done nothing wrong, even if I did put it into my body 40 times," he said. "I have done nothing illegal. If I had been using something illegal in my body it would be that Miguel Tejada would be finished by now because I play hard. And everybody knows I play hard. And somebody who has done something illegal to their body can't play the game as hard as I do.
"Because a body won't respond to how I play the game. I am a natural person."
Previously when Tejada had been questioned by reporters about his involvement with Palmeiro, the shortstop appeared overwhelmed and defensive. Those questions were asked in English, a language he has yet to master. Speaking in Spanish in his home country, Tejada was confident and assertive last month.
"I don't deny it," Tejada said of his B-12 use. "But that doesn't mean that if I use it that much I'm contaminating my body. It doesn't matter how many times I've used it. It doesn't matter the times I've injected it because that is all I use. If you tell me that it's illegal then I won't use it. But it's legal."
Halfway through the 25-minute interview, one of Tejada's representative's tried to stop the session with a reporter, first by interrupting a question and then by talking while the shortstop had tried to answer it. Tejada simply waved him off.
"No that's okay," Tejada said. "What he's asking is going to be asked by many people."
Publicly, the committee has little to say about Tejada's testimony or these comments, other than to suggest that people read their report, released in November, very carefully. "No comment, other than to say the Committee has, indeed, left Mr. Tejada alone," David Marin, spokesman for committee chairman Tom Davis (R-Va.), wrote in an e-mail recently.
Tejada late last season sagged under the intense pressure of Palmeiro's perjury investigation. He no longer chatted in the dugout during games and he hardly smiled, becoming more quiet and reserved.
"I think that whole mess really got to him," Orioles Manager Sam Perlozzo said. "It was a challenge to his character and it hurt him. Mentally, he wasn't the same Miguel Tejada for us."
He hit only four home runs after Aug. 1 and finished with 98 RBI, the first time since 1999 he failed to drive in at least 100 runs. Tejada's slump coincided with Palmeiro's suspension and the request, as detailed in the committee's report, by the players' union that the shortstop discontinue the use of injectable B-12, which, according to several sources, appears to be commonplace among Dominican baseball players.
Orioles trainer Richie Bancells said he could not verify the amount of B-12 used by Tejada. A source close to the players' association said Orioles players are warned about the dangers of using injectable supplements, though no rules exist forbidding their use. It is simply left to a player's discretion.
"I just don't think it's a judicious course of action," Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer said of players injecting themselves with supplements in today's highly charged steroid atmosphere.
One team official said the team would at least look into banning players from injecting themselves or others with supplements or vitamins.
It was Tejada's sudden trade demand that kept him in the news for most of the offseason. Tejada first voiced his displeasure with the organization in an interview in early December with an Associated Press reporter in the Dominican, sending Orioles officials scurrying. Though Tejada recently rescinded his trade demand, team officials are still baffled about his motive and admit that such an outburst from their franchise player hindered their efforts to improve the team in the offseason.
"I wanted to speak for the team," Tejada said. "And at least I think the team is different. Because since I spoke, we've made several acquisitions. At least now you can see the team is trying. Not that we can say yet we can compete with the Yankees or with Boston, but at least you can see the team is trying to be competitive."
Tejada reiterated his demand to Orioles officials through his representatives, and the club was forced to listen to inquires regarding their all-star shortstop. Baltimore spoke with the Red Sox about a possible swap for outfielder Manny Ramirez, but ultimately those talks stalled when the Orioles requested another player and cash. The Houston Astros, Chicago White Sox, Chicago Cubs also emerged as suitors, but the Orioles made lofty demands and the team never truly came close to dealing Tejada.
And so, in less than two weeks, Tejada will begin his 10th season in the major leagues and perhaps he has never had more to prove. Is he the galant hero who on his first official day as an Oriole proclaimed Baltimore would no longer be a losing team? It seems obvious Tejada no longer thinks that way.
Or is Tejada the scandalous figure who became a part of the biggest drug investigation in baseball history?
"If Miguel wants to come in and correct any misunderstanding, he needs to come in [to spring training] in the best shape of his life," Palmer said.
The controversy has not changed Tejada's popularity in the Dominican, where he remains a beloved figure, especially in Bani, his home town.
On a Wednesday in January, a lanky teenage boy stood on the mound of Miguel Tejada Stadium and prepared to pitch with every bit of his strength. In the blue concrete stands, the color of the Caribbean Sea, several other young men watched. In one of the dugouts, another group of teenagers waited for their turn on the mound, hoping to impress a couple of Los Angeles Angels scouts who had borrowed the field for tryouts.
The stadium, built two years ago by Tejada as a gift to the community, is in the Los Barrancones neighborhood. It is not luxurious but elegantly functional. It is a true stadium, complete with an outfield wall, two dugouts, a bullpen area and a small press box. The field is used every day by local children, day and night, for either little league games, or sometimes showcases for major league scouts.
On this day the tryout lasted less than five minutes, but it was obvious Juan De La Cruz, 17, a long tangle of spindly arms and legs, had stirred something in the scouts. "They will speak with their bosses and then they will let me know," De La Cruz said.
Although he hopes to be a major league pitcher, De La Cruz said Tejada is his favorite player.
"I like the way he plays," De La Cruz said. "I've seen him hit here. When he's here it gets full of people. He's done a great job here for the community."
