I heard this on 97.9 this morning. I thought it was strange, but I understand why the Indians wanted to get this story out now so it doesn't interfere with the kid's progress further down the line.
It would have come up sooner or later that he was banned (blackballed, whatever you want to call it) from playing ball in Japan.
In a totally unrelated story, I finally got my countertop and now my kitchen rocks.
Back to your regularly scheduled scandal thread (Scandal...awesome song and video by Queen)...