Remembering When Baseball Fans Learned Fausto Carmona's Was a Fake Name

There are many instances where professional athletes take up a moniker instead of using their actual name. While that's cool and all, there was one instance eight years ago when using an alias was straight up illegal.

In 2012, 28-year-old Cleveland Indians pitcher Fausto Carmona was arrested in the Dominican Republic for using a false identity to obtain a United State visa. As it turns out, Carmona wasn't the player that Major League Baseball thought he was. Carmona was actually Roberto Hernandez Heredia, and he was technically 31-years-old, rather than his previously-reported 28.

Hernandez's birth certificate was doctored, and the woman who made the changes to said document went public with it after she never received payment from the pitcher. In fact, even Hernandez's agent was shocked by this revelation.

This was a lot to unpack. Hernandez was given a three-week suspension that July and returned to Cleveland's starting rotation the very next month.

Hernandez's stint with the Indians came to an end after the 2012 season due to his inconsistency on the mound. He would go on to play with the Tampa Bay Rays, Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros and Atlanta Braves the following four years before flaming out from the league altogether in 2016.

Fausto Carmona/Roberto Hernandez had an up-and-down career highlighted by a lone All-Star Game appearance in 2010. But, the pitcher will forever be remembered for this false identity controversy.