Astros owner surprised Tejada named, has no regrets of acquiring SS

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Houston Astros owner Drayton McLane was surprised when Miguel Tejada was mentioned in the Mitchell Report but has no regrets about acquiring the star shortstop.

The chairman and ranking minority member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee asked the Justice Department to investigate whether Tejada, the 2002 AL MVP, made false statements to federal authorities.

"You can't look back," McLane said Wednesday during a break at the major league owners' meetings. "You have to move forward."

McLane said Astros general manager Ed Wade had spoken briefly to Tejada's agent but has not talked to the player, whose brother died Tuesday in a motorcycle accident in the Dominican Republic.

"We're going to wait until we know more facts and see really what the issues are and what needs to be done," McLane said.

Tejada, who won his MVP award with the Oakland Athletics, was acquired from Baltimore on Dec. 12, one day before the Mitchell Report was released. The report said former Oakland teammate Adam Piatt claimed that he gave steroids to Tejada in 2003, and the report includes checks for $3,100 and $3,200 purportedly written from Tejada to Piatt.

McLane said he was caught off-guard when Tejada was mentioned in the report and that he asked commissioner Bud Selig on Wednesday if he knew in advance that Tejada would be in the report.

"We've read reports on hundreds of players over the last two years, and you didn't know whether he had denied them," McLane said. "But you had no idea he was going to be in the Mitchell Report. Then this just came out of the blue. I was asking the commissioner a little while ago, I said, 'Did y'all know that was going to happen?' and he said, 'We were startled too.' They had no knowledge."

McLane said the Astros don't have a backup plan at shortstop if Tejada can't play this season.

"You don't know whether that was just some big scene and will fade away, or is it a real issue," McLane said. "We just need to determine what the committee and Congress is going to do, and what his side of the story is."