Umpire orders team to stop speaking Spanish, costs team game.
 

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/news/story?id=2119529

Little League team protests after ump bans Spanish
Associated Press

METHUEN, Mass. -- Coaches on a Little League team filed a protest with the league after an umpire ordered the players to stop speaking Spanish during a state tournament game this week.

Coaches said the order demoralized the Methuen players and cost the team the game.

"This never should have happened," coach Chris Mosher told the Eagle-Tribune newspaper. "These are 14-year-old kids who should not have to deal with any of this, especially in Little League baseball."

National Little League spokesman Lance Van Auken said there's no rule against players speaking Spanish or any other language on the field. But he said it's too late to reverse the decision or the outcome of the game.

"It appears the umpire was concerned that the coach or manager may have been using a language other than English ... to communicate potentially 'illegal' instructions to his players," Van Auken said in an e-mail to The Associated Press Friday. "The umpire simply overstepped his authority, and there was no malicious intent."

Mosher said the incident happened Tuesday night during a Junior Little League game against Seekonk in Lakeville.

Methuen was winning 3-1 when assistant coach Domingo Infante instructed the pitcher in Spanish to try to pick off a runner at second base. After the unsuccessful attempt, the umpire called time-out and spoke with a Little League official who was at the game. The unidentified umpire then decreed that only English could be spoken.

"All I could hear was, 'We cannot allow this,"' Mosher said. "At this point I was baffled why we could only speak English."

Mosher said he challenged the ruling, but the Little League official said it would stand. Infante then left the game in protest, which Mosher said demoralized his pitcher and catcher, who speak little English. Methuen lost the game 10-6, though the team remains alive in the tournament.

Van Auken said the loss can't be reversed because a formal protest must be filed during the game. He told the Eagle-Tribune the umpire won't be punished.

"You're talking about human beings," Auken said. "Human beings do make mistakes."

well duh....
 

If the umpire does not speak spanish then he can not ensure that the game is being run fairly. As long as this is the case then he has a very valid arguement. He asked them and they did not follow his instructions to ensure fairness for everyone.

It's sad that these kids' parents have not seen fit to help them to learn english. Without some education at this point, they can pretty much count on joining the ranks of the working poor when they leave their parents' roost.

Re: well duh....
 

I agree. It would be the same if they were speakiing French or Russian or any other languiage that the ump doesn't speak. It's ridiculous that people are making this out to be a discrimination issue.

Re: well duh....
 

What about hand signals that are perfectly legal in the game? An ump doesn't know a team's signals, but that's ok? It doesn't matter if the coach tells a kid to do something, it's only illegal if the kid does it. And if the kid does it, then EVERYONE will see that the act was illegal. There isn't much illegal in baseball - aside from pine tar, substances the pitcher uses on the ball, and pegging someone with the ball - all of which don't need the spoken in English to see they have been done.

ETA: Are all the umps at the Little League world series fluent in the languages spoken by the teams? I doubt it. Often there are Latin American and Asia countries represented.

I was thinking the same thing. The team found an advantage that is totally legal and they took it. I don't understand why the ump decided that they can't do it anymore. What's next? Every team must shout their intention so to steal so it's fair?

LOL! Exactly! And tell the batter what pitch they are throwing.

Maybe the ump was worried about verbal abuse.

If the Coach was speaking French or Russian, It would be discrimination also. This is a discrimination issue no matter what language was spoken by the coach.

No one seems to mind players not speaking english if it is for the Red Sox or Yankees.

They should dismiss the ump for bad judgement.


Quick question: what can be said by a coach that is potentially Illegal? I am not trying to be sarcastic, I don't know all of the rules of Baseball.

Monika

Except the offical word from the League in their statement was this:
"It appears the umpire was concerned that the coach or manager may have been using a language other than English ... to communicate potentially 'illegal' instructions to his players," Van Auken said in an e-mail to The Associated Press Friday.

MissMonika: That's part of my and moe.ron's point. You can't just speak something against the rules and therefore it's illegal. Anything illegal in baseball has to be seen basically - putting something on the ball to make it fly funny, intentionally slapping a player, etc. Even if the coach was telling the pitcher to put Vaseline on the ball, he could do that in English in a whisper in the kids ear and this ump wouldn't know. Or, for that matter, he could have a hand signal that means the same thing and the ump would have no clue what was being communicated. So to ban Spanish is just ignorant.

How exactly did this cost the team the game?