Amid scandal, Nationals fire Rijo

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/baseball/mlb/02/26/nationals.rijo.fired.ap/index.html

VIERA, Florida (AP) -- Jose Rijo, a special assistant to Washington Nationals general manager Jim Bowden, was fired by the club on Thursday, the latest fallout from a scandal involving a top prospect from the Dominican Republic who lied about his age and name.

The team also fired Jose Baez, the Nationals' director of operations in the Dominican Republic, and cut ties with Rijo's baseball academy in the Dominican Republic.

Rijo has worked for Bowden since 2005, when the franchise moved from Montreal to Washington. Rijo played in Major League Baseball as a pitcher and was the 1990 World Series MVP for the Cincinnati Reds.

"On Saturday, we met as a staff and decided that this is what we needed to do," Nationals president Stan Kasten said. "I've taken the action that I think is appropriate for this problem, both to deal with the problem and to fix the problem."

It was at Rijo's Dominican academy that the Nationals organization was introduced to a player it first knew as Esmailyn "Smiley" Gonzalez. He was the Dominican prospect who received a $1.4 million signing bonus in 2006, when the Nationals thought they were signing a 16-year-old shortstop.

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You might as well post something about croquet.

:eyes:

This is not your forum.

nt

As this years #1 pick Stephen Strasburg mows em down at SD State. The future looks good.