Old Time Family Baseball

Twitter RSS Archive Ask me anything

Fausto Carmona’s Real Identity Revealed After Hush Money Snafu

Reading the above headline, you might think I was a real newsman, one who wore wide ties and gray suits and smoked cigarettes until dawn trying to finish the copy on the Gorbachev debacle. But nope, I’m still just writing about baseball.

After news of the fake Fausto Carmona’s (real name Roberto Hernandez Heredia) fraudulent identity spread earlier this week in the wake of the real Fausto Carmona’s mother going on a radio show in Santo Domingo, now we know the reason for the truth coming out.

After the Indians gave (the fake) Fausto Carmona a raise to $7 million, the real Carmonas were also expecting a raise to keep quiet. When the pitcher refused to give in to their requests, the family stepped forward. It’s a strange move as, now that Carmona’s real name has been revealed, not only will they not receive a higher pay cut, they won’t be receiving any at all.

While the Indians may look into voiding Carmona’s contract, no one can really blame Carmona for making the switch. Now 31, and three years older than his previously listed age, there is a good chance that Carmona never would have been signed at all had he been looked at as a 19 year-old prospect. Should he be cut by the Indians, he still has earned $15 million he may have otherwise never seen.

Melissa Segura at Sports Illustrated looked at the average dollar amounts prospects signed for in the Dominican and it all adds up:

“Using the data of 5,404 Latin American prospects signed as amateur free-agents from Jan. 1, 2003 through Jan. 12, 2010, SI found teams paid a median of $65,000 to 16-year-olds compared to $20,000 to 18-year-olds. Juxtaposing that speed of depreciation with the soul crushing poverty of places like Carmona’s native Dominican Republic, which has a per capita income of $8,900, suddenly the matter of fudging one’s age isn’t a question of virtue, but in many cases, survival and sanity.”

Factor in higher bonuses and age relative to league as two of the biggest measuring tools for minor league promotions, and it’s not shocking to see why a player’s greatest hope in getting out of poverty could be lying about his age.

Though Major League Baseball has cracked down on the age scandals in the Dominican, spending more time thoroughly checking for proper identification, the new collective bargaining agreement now limits the amount that can be spent internationally. While the big name 16-year-olds will still receive their payouts, this could make the situation ever more desperate for older teenagers looking to make their way into professional baseball, leading to even more identification scandals.

  1. joyous-campbell reblogged this from gotribe
  2. goodsportsmanship reblogged this from oldtimefamilybaseball
  3. ido-stupid-things reblogged this from oldtimefamilybaseball
  4. gotribe reblogged this from oldtimefamilybaseball
  5. section9 reblogged this from oldtimefamilybaseball and added:
    This is kinda fun. I should have brought popcorn to watch all this unfold.
  6. oldtimefamilybaseball posted this
Theme created by David Summerton.
blog comments powered by Disqus