Yankees try to avoid scandal involving Melky Cabrera

[Lil Bit Special]

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2008/07/17/2008-07-17_yankees_try_to_avoid_scandal_involving_m.html

BOCA CHICA, Dominican Republic - Victor Mata sat in a corner seat high atop a watchtower at the Yankees' baseball academy Thursday, his gaze fixed on the dozens of potential Yankee prospects playing in a game against Chicago Cubs prospects on the pristine field below.

Mata, the Bombers' Latin American field coordinator and a former Yankee player in the mid-1980s, spat tobacco juice, wiped his brow, and engaged in friendly banter about the pitching challenges manager Yankee Joe Girardi may face in the second half of the season.

It was a decidedly different atmosphere from three days earlier, and Mata said he hopes he put to rest a controversy involving Yankees center fielder Melky Cabrera.

Last week, the Dominican newspaper El Caribe reported that Cabrera had not received his entire $175,000 bonus for signing with the Bombers as an amateur free agent in 2001 and that they say he has been a victim of the skimming and kickback scam that the FBIMajor League Baseball authorities are currently investigating in the Dominican.

Mata and Carlos Rios were the scouts who signed Cabrera. and

The scandal has already cost three White Sox officials their jobs earlier this spring and has dragged former Dominican star pitcher Jose Rijo and Nationals general manager Jim Bowden into the news as well.

"I got a call from my mother in New York and my sisters that live there. My mother said, 'Victor, what happened?' I didn't know what she was talking about at first," Mata says. "But I think, for now, it's not an issue and it's in the past."

Joined by Cabrera's mother, Maria Teresa Astacio, Mata and R

[Thor99]

If any of these skimming stories are true, Yankees, Sox and Nats, these guys are the ultimate scumbags.

I really hope this is much ado about nothing.