Only the Washington Nationals....

[Tommy_Carcetti]

Tsk, tsk, tsk, TZ.
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http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-nationals-fakeagename&prov=ap&type=lgns

Leading Nationals prospect from DR faked age, name
By HOWARD FENDRICH, AP Sports Writer
15 hours, 1 minute ago


VIERA, Fla. (AP)—A top baseball prospect from the Dominican Republic who received a $1.4 million signing bonus from the Washington Nationals lied about his age and name in what team president Stan Kasten called “an elaborate scheme.”

“I’m angry. I’m very angry. We’ve been defrauded,” Kasten said Wednesday. “And make no mistake: This wasn’t a college kid with a fake ID.”

“This was a deliberate, premeditated fraud” that involved bribes, along with falsified hospital and school records, Kasten said.

In July 2006, to much fanfare, the Nationals signed a 16-year-old shortstop named Esmailyn “Smiley” Gonzalez and held a news conference at which general manager Jim Bowden compared the player to Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith. Still known as Gonzalez, he wound up leading the rookie-level Gulf Coast League with a .343 batting average in 2008 and was honored as the league’s MVP.

But while the Nationals have been listing his date of birth as Sept. 21, 1989—which would make him 19 now—Kasten said Wednesday that a Major League Baseball investigation determined Gonzalez is actually Carlos David Alvarez Lugo, born in November 1985—meaning he is really 23.