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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."
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