Friday, July 29, 2005
SI: ump bans spanish on little league field
"Methuen, Mass(AP)-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. Afther 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."
You want to explain that to the 37 million Hispanics in the US some of whom have enlisted in the Armed Forces and are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan?
The ump should learn how to speak Spanish, just as we, as Americans, need to learn to speak Spanish, Arabic, Pashto, Urdu, Mandarin, Cantonese, and every other language out there because we are at a serious disadvantage not knowing them.
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. Afther 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."
You want to explain that to the 37 million Hispanics in the US some of whom have enlisted in the Armed Forces and are serving in Iraq and Afghanistan?
The ump should learn how to speak Spanish, just as we, as Americans, need to learn to speak Spanish, Arabic, Pashto, Urdu, Mandarin, Cantonese, and every other language out there because we are at a serious disadvantage not knowing them.
