Saturday, July 30, 2005

Little League Umpire Prohibits Spanish during Game

Believing that an assistant little league coach for Methuen (Massachusetts) was communicating "illegal" instructions to his players in Spanish, an umpire in the state's little league tournament for 13-14 year olds decreed that Spanish would not be spoken thereafter in the game, otherwise the offending team would forfeit (Silva & Mishra, "Team Forced to Listen to Umpire's Call," Boston Globe, July 30, 2005). This decree occurred when Methuen was leading 3-1 over Seekonk, and assistant coach Domingo Infante gave the following instruction to his team's pitcher: 'Tira lo bien!," which signaled to the pitcher to throw a good pick-off throw. Immediately after the pitcher failed in his pick-off attempt, the umpire called time-out and said, in effect, nadie puede hablar español en este juego, although I imagine his words were more like, "nobody can speak Spanish in this game."

This decree did not bode well for Methuen, since its pitcher spoke very little English. Perhaps not surprisingly, Seekonk went on to defeat Methuen, though Methuen remains alive in the tournament. But to make matters worse for Methuen, relevant little league rules only allow for formal protests to be filed during a game -- a rule which Methuen found out after the game, when it tried to file a formal protest.

Although the game will remain on the books, public outcry is growing. John Carroll, vice president of Methuen Little League, finds that "this is absolutely ridiculous. Everyone in Little League . . . should be ashamed. To treat kids this way, in this day and age, is outrageous." Even Colombian-born Red Sox shortstop Edgar Renteria has chimed in. ''They cannot tell the kids not to speak Spanish . . . Nobody can tell me not to speak in Spanish. No matter how you speak -- English, Spanish, Japanese, whatever -- as long as you go on the field, work hard, and play hard, that's it."

Surprisingly, a spokesman for the National Little League said the umpire will not be punished: "The umpire simply overstepped his authority, and there was no malicious intent." This means that the umpire will continue to work in the state tournament.

I wonder what would have happened had the assistant coach been communicating through signs? Would the umpire have banned signs too? Along those lines, what is the difference between signs and a language that the other team may not understand? I don't see any difference. But I guess the umpire did, and he managed to offend a lot of people in the process.

Update 7/31/05: The umpire has now been suspended for the rest of the year.

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