Empty the Bench

Former Philadelphia Phillies and Detroit Tigers closer Ugueth Urbina received his sentence in Venezuela today for assault stemming from an honest misunderstanding in 2005. ESPN reports Urbina received 14 years in prison for what was technically referred to as, ‘Attempted Murder’, but that term is so overused these days it’s practically lost all meaning.

On October 16th, 2005 Urbina returned home to find several of his employees swimming in his pool without permission. Uggie told them in no uncertain terms that he did not appreciate the liberty they had taken, then left the scene to knock a few back. Later, he and several of his friends chased the men with machetes, rounded them up, bound them, continued assaulting them physically, then poured gasoline and paint thinner on them and set several of the men on fire. Big deal. They were swimming in his pool! Unauthorized! They probably didn’t even bring their swimsuits and thought it was OK to just swim in their boxers. Uncool. I say they got off lightly. The attorney for the victims, Wuanyer Perez, was pleased with the sentence, saying:

“We think it is an excellent sentence. The victims consider this an important example that anyone with power, influence and money is not above the law,” Perez said. “It is an example for the entire world, not just for Venezuela, that everyone is on equal ground when it comes to the law and justice.”

Hippie. Just months earlier, Ugueth had been involved in another alcohol and violence related incident, this time involving teammates on a Detroit Tigers team flight:

Booth Newspapers reported on Thursday that Urbina was traded because he “drank too much and fought with teammates on the team flight to Los Angeles Sunday night.”

“That’s not why I got traded,” Urbina said. “I got traded because I wanted to get traded. I didn’t want to be there.”

So what happened on the plane? Sources in Detroit and Philadelphia say he drank too much, infuriated teammates and became involved in fights with reliever Kyle Farnsworth and others.

Contrary to what Uggie said, that is why he got traded from the Tigers to the Philadelphia Phillies. Whatever, that Farnsworth guy is a jerk. He’s got a big mouth, probably had it coming. I bet he never brings his suit.