While Bobby Crosby has helped fans in Oakland forget about their former MVP, Miguel Tejada has been a hit with his new team, the Baltimore Orioles.
Tejada will make his first trip back to Oakland this week, when the A’s and Orioles play a four-game series that starts Monday.
Tejada is hitting .314 and leads the Orioles in home runs (23) and RBIs (108). He has played in every game, running his ironman streak to 711, and has brought a combination of skill, energy and leadership.
“He’s a treat to watch,” teammate Rafael Palmeiro says. “He plays this game the right way, and that’s the only way he knows how to play it. He’s got guys on this team enthused. He’s a great team player, a great leader.”
Without a winning season since 1997, the Orioles have been conditioned to the blahs of meaningless August baseball. But Tejada recently sparked an eight-game winning streak, and hope brims.
“He’s kind of special,” first-year Orioles manager Lee Mazzilli says. “On the field, in the clubhouse, how he keeps everybody loose, he’s made a big difference.”
Tejada was a skinny 17-year-old when he signed with the A’s out of the Dominican Republic in 1993, having spent hours refining his skills at the team’s developmental camp. He reached the major leagues to stay five years later and became an AL MVP four years after that. He played 594 straight games for the A’s and helped lead them to four straight playoff appearances.
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“The A’s organization, I do look at it like you could look at a mother and father,” Tejada says. “They made me grow up, and now I’m out on my own. I’m the kind of player I am because they gave me an opportunity that was unbelievable. Now, I have to do everything I can for the Baltimore Orioles, but I won’t ever forget where I came from.”