Local New Mexico Baseball Team to File Complaint Against Umpire Who Didn’t Want Players Speaking Spanish

Apr 12, 2013
10:48 PM

This story came via Deadspin, which found it at the Alburquerque Journal. The New Mexico paper reported that the coaches of a local high school baseball team from Las Cruces planned “to file a formal complaint against an umpire who allegedly told a Hispanic player to stop speaking Spanish during a game in Alamogordo on Tuesday.”

According of the assistant coaches for the Gadsden Panthers team, the first-baee umpire for the game allegedly told the coach the following, “Anyone who speaks Spanish – coaches or players – will be ejected.”

Se_habla_espanol_by_templarioart

The umpire in question, Corey Jones, wouldn’t comment to the newspaper. The story continues:

[Assistant coach] Burciaga said he told Jones, “Our players will not stop speaking Spanish, and they will not be ejected.”

He said Jones then “came walking toward me and said, ‘Another word from you, Coach, and you will be ejected.’ ”

The home plate umpire, who is bilingual, intervened in the mid-game conflict and told Jones there was no rule prohibiting players from speaking Spanish on the field, Burciaga said.

According to Burciaga, Jones said he could not tell if Gadsden players were insulting or cursing their Alamogordo opponents in Spanish, and wanted players to speak English so he could ensure good sportsmanship was maintained.

The other umpire, Burciaga said, assured Jones that he understood Spanish and would put a stop to any foul language. Burciaga, a 1999 Gadsden High grad, said that the coaching staff would have stopped any of their players from cursing in Spanish.

No one was ejected from the game, which Alamogordo won, and the Gadsden coaching staff told their players they could continue to speak Spanish, Burciaga said.

You can read the rest of the story here.

Looks like we should just play this video at the end of each post we do, it seems: