Uggy Urbina makes position change from Pitcher to Catcher
 

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Former Major League Baseball pitcher Ugueth Urbina was sentenced to 14 years in prison for the attempted murder of five workers on his family's ranch, the Attorney General's Office announced Wednesday.

Urbina, a former pitcher with the Montreal Expos, Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies, was also found guilty of illegal deprivation of liberty and violating a prohibition against taking justice into his own hands during a dispute over a gun on Oct. 16, 2005, according to a statement from the Attorney General's Office.

"I am very disappointed and upset," his agent, Peter Greenberg, told ESPN. "We're hopeful that the judicial process will exonerate Uggie. I firmly believe he's innocent."

The 33-year-old free agent was accused of joining a group of men in attacking and injuring workers with machetes and pouring gasoline on them at his family's ranch, located about 25 miles south of Caracas.

"The ruling was too severe," said Jose Antonio Baez, a former attorney who represented Urbina.

Urbina repeatedly has denied involvement in the violent attack, saying he was sleeping at the time.

The pitcher's lawyer, Jose Luis Tamayo, has said that Urbina surprised the workers by showing up at his ranch that night while they were bathing in the pool without permission. Urbina spoke sharply to them, but later left and went to sleep, according to Tamayo.

Urbina, a two-time All-Star, last pitched in the major leagues with the Phillies in 2005. He's 30th on the all-time saves list with 237. He had two saves in the 2003 World Series for the victorious Marlins.

In 11 major league seasons with the Expos, Boston Red Sox, Rangers, Marlins, Tigers and Phillies, Urbina went 44-49 with a 3.45 ERA. He led the National League with 41 saves in 1999 with the Expos and was third in the AL with 40 saves for the Red Sox in 2002.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.



http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2815590

I thought this was going to be a report from your OOTP historical sim.

I still haven't gotten OOTP but I will as soon as I get my next check.

best thread title in the last week or so, at least.

I disagree. Urbina is a wealthy former baseball player who will probably be treated like an idol in there. He'll be calling the shots. There's no way he's making a position switch.

A+ for comedy purposes though. :)

"Hey Oogie!"
"Yeah, Lawrence?"
"Watch your cornhole, bud."

Me too.

Apparently, he wasn't able to come up with money to satisfy Venezuela's blackmail demands.

I like that there is a suggestion that taking justice into your own hand is OK unless there is a prohibition against it. I also like that Venezuela has a law for that, which suggest that it was such a frequent problem that they had to pass a law.

And while we're at, a grammar error in the story suggests that Venezuela has a low prohibiting Ugeth Urbina from taking justice into his own hands, but that doesn't necessarily apply to everyone.

You know, that actually wouldn't be terribly surprising.