The Story Behind the Oldest Rookie

[indiansfan]

The Story Behind the Oldest Rookie

When the Calgary Pioneers signed infielder Janos Merck to a minor league deal in June barely anybody noticed. If they did, it was due to the $410,000 signing bonus the German prospect got after only playing one year of high school ball. Then things got weird.

“I knew right away that this guy wasn’t a teenager,” Chestermere Lunkers Manager Carl Long said. “I mean this guy didn’t have any gray hair or anything, but he wasn’t built like a kid.”

The team got some film and a write up on Merck from scout Mario Soriano while on a trip through Europe. The report was that Merck could play any position other than pitcher and catcher, had an average bat and an above average glove. It said he was slow as a sloth. Soriano also wrote, “The kid has potential. There is just something about him.”

Based on Soriano’s report, Assistant GM Alfonso Martinez made Merck an offer and after some negotiation he signed. The team increased it’s original offer when they heard that two other teams were interested in the German. Now the team is wondering if Merck started the rumors himself to gin up the price.

“There really weren’t any red flags,” Martinez said. “It isn’t unusual for some of these foreign prospects to negotiate their own deal. I guess I should have thought something was up, I just figured he was pretty smart for his age.”

His high school stats were impressive. He hit .448, with a.492 OBA and a 1.122 OPS. One third of his hits were doubles and he walked twice as often as he struck out. In 26 games he scored 37 runs and drove in 33. The only thing that seems unusual is that he only played baseball his senior year of high school, but then again the sport is not as popular over there.

“I guess we didn’t really know until I had to bail him out,” Long said. “I got this call to come down and pick him up after he had too much fun on the town”

Chestermere, a town of 20,000 inhabitants, doesn’t have much of a “party district”, but the local constabulary has gotten used to the influx of Lunkers players at the beginning of the season and the tendency for some of them to celebrate too much. Of course since many of them are under age this can create some problems as well as the fact that most are here on visas.

“I figured I was going to have to give out some free tickets for them to keep this off the books,” Long explained as he wanted to prevent Merck from having any immigration problems and wasn’t sure if he was underage. “When they told me his ID said he was 31 years old, I thought wow this kid got ripped off on that fake ID. Then they told me that was what it said on his passport.”

Merck was born April 29, 2010. The Pioneers paid $410,000 for a 31 year old “prospect.”

“At that point we talked to our lawyers about voiding the contract based on fraud and they told us we didn’t have a case,” Martinez said. “Mario never asked about his age, he just assumed he was 18 or 19. Nobody checked.”

When Long confronted Merck the next day, after he sobered up, he found out that the story was even stranger than anyone could have imagined. Merck did legitimately play high school ball, but he was only posing as an teenager. The young looking 31 year old was actually an undercover agent and playing baseball was part of his cover. It is unclear if the school was fully aware of the deception.

“I was there to look into the use of performing enhancing drugs,” Merck said. “The team had already been sanctioned from the previous season so there was no concern of me causing them to be penalized if the league found out I wasn’t eligible. I was actually surprised at how good I played since I never really played much when I was in school myself. The only problem were the girls.”

Merck quickly became the team’s best player and as a result had no shortage of female admirers. Of course he had to rebuff their advances for fear of finding himself on the wrong side of the law.

So it turns out that Merck didn’t do anything wrong. He was minding his own business when Soriano got word of him and scouted a few of his games. When the offer came, he thought it was a joke at first, but when he realized it was real he couldn’t pass up the easy money.

“I guess I should have been mad at the kid, ah they guy, but really how could I be,” Long said. “I mean wouldn’t I have done the same thing if I was in his shoes? Plus he actually has some talent. I doubt he’ll ever make it far, but everyone should have a shot at their dream.”

Merck only hit .233 in 13 games with the Lunkers but he did hit .303 against right handed pitchers. He also played 4 different positions, didn’t make an error and posted a positive ZR.

“I was afraid that there would be a problem when they found out, but everyone seems ok with it,” Merck said. “Of course my nickname is Gramps, but it’s all in good fun.”

The team even got in on the fun when they hosted a “Bring Your Grandpa To The Game Night”, where any child that brought an adult over 31 got into the game free. It is not clear if this season will be a one and done for Merck, he was not invited to play in the FPL by the Pioneers.

It is also unclear what impact this has on Soriano’s future or for that matter Martinez. Calgary has a habit of firing Asst GM’s when something goes wrong and while it is doubtful that Martinez will feel the axe he can probably kiss his bonus goodbye. For Soriano it has been a rough year. He was snubbed in the HOF vote despite ranking #10 on the BBA’s all time hits list with 3314 hits. His scouting trip was an audition for a minor league coaching slot with the team next year and his lack of attention to detail could derail that. Of course a Landis win will make everyone forget about this strange little footnote in team history.

[Lane]

Looks like a great candidate for the ole Age Check PP reward!!

[jleddy]

Too good!