Home MLB Baseball’s name game

Baseball’s name game

by Matt Smith

One of the main headlines from Sunday’s Spring Training games concerned the Miami Marlins’ outfielder Giancarlo Stanton being hit on the left wrist by a pitch.

The hearts of Marlins fans and fantasy owners skipped a beat before reading on to find that the X-rays showed no real damage had been done; however this might not have been a typical ‘panic’ followed by ‘relief’ moment for everyone catching up on the story.

For some baseball fans the process would have started with a few seconds of confusion about whether this related to the talented Mike Stanton or a Minor Leaguer of the same surname.

Mike decided over the offseason that he would prefer to be referred to by his actual first name. It’s a perfectly reasonable request rather than a case of a self-obsessed star trying to control their image, but it’s still one that will take a bit of getting used to.

Stanton’s not the only player who will be referred to by a different name this season, although he at least has a straight forward reason for the change. It’s nowhere near as simple for Fausto Carmona and Leo Nunez, indeed their situations are so complicated that they might not even be playing in the Majors this year.

Both pitchers are in trouble for gaining residency and employment in the States using another person’s identity documents. Fausto Carmona is actually Roberto Hernandez, while Leo Nunez’s real name is Juan Carlos Oviedo. Their motivation for taking this risk was not specifically to change their name but to change their age. Oviedo is believed to be nearly a year and a half older than previously thought (born in March 1982 rather than August 1983) while Hernandez could be as much as three years older than everyone had previously known.

A player’s age is an important piece of information when trying to evaluate their talent and potential, especially when they are a youngster trying to earn a professional contract. That’s precisely why these two players went down the route of using false identities. It created a false picture of where they were in their development curve, from their level of experience to their physical maturity.

Hernandez’s situation is particularly affected by such a large difference between his perceived and actual age. While his 2007 season (19-8 with a 3.06 ERA) still looks impressive, it’s seen in a different light knowing he was 26 years old rather than 23.

In April 2008 the Cleveland Indians rewarded his efforts with a four-year contract that guaranteed him $15m and could have been worth up to $43 million if all the bonuses and escalating clauses had been met. It’s difficult to say for sure whether the Indians would have agreed to significantly different contract terms had they known Hernandez’s true age, but it unquestionably would have factored into their decision-making process and the contract negotiations.

There is a short video on ESPN.com in which Rob Manfred, MLB Executive VP Labor Relations and Human Resources, discusses the problems surrounding identity fraud. He talks about some of the reasons why young players from countries such as the Dominican Republic would take the risk of using false documents and what MLB is doing to try to counteract this.

Clearly there is much work to be done, not simply by MLB in respect of the causes of this situation but also by the respective authorities who are rubber-stamping the players’ entries into the States. Both cases are a very public damning of their procedures and vigilance.

Roberto Hernandez and Juan Carlos Oviedo now have to go through the legal processes and hope that they will soon be able to return to their profession and give us a reason to get used to their ‘new’ names.

As for Giancarlo Stanton, his home-run hitting exploits for the Marlins will ensure that everyone will get to know his ‘new’ name very quickly once the regular season begins.

You may also like

1 comment

Joe Cooter March 13, 2012 - 2:08 pm

In the Cases of Hernandez and Oviedo is complicated by the fact that their cases have drawn the attention of the US State Department, who takes a strict view on this sort of activity because of the War on Terror. According to ESPN’s Pedro Gomez, the State Deparment takes a hardline on this because this is the exact Same tactic that members of Al Quieda used to enter this country when planning the 9-11 attacks.

Hernandez and Oviedo could very well be barred from entering this country for years. This is the exact same thing that happened to Alexi Orgondo, of the Rangers, a few years ago. He ended up being barred from the US for five years. It would not shock me if Hernandez and Oviedo were not given visas for a while a few years.

Reply

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.