UMPIRES: Jesse Jackson criticized Major League Baseball on Thursday for sending investigators to the hometowns of umpires to ask neighbors questions that include whether the ump belongs to the Ku Klux Klan.
“Major League Baseball has done a disservice to its progressive social history by equating southern whites with white supremacists,” Jackson said in a statement. “I am surprised the professional league which helped change social attitudes in all sports leagues about segregation, by championing Jackie Robinson, would make such a destructive move.”
World Umpires Association president John Hirschbeck and union spokesman Lamell McMorris said Wednesday that Tom Christopher, the Milwaukee-based supervisor of security and investigations in the commissioner’s office, had asked questions about Klan membership to neighbors of umpires Greg Gibson and Sam Holbrook, who reside in Kentucky. In addition, Hirschbeck said similar questions had been asked to neighbors of umpire Ron Kulpa, who lives in suburban St. Louis.
“In a year with the injustice of Jena Six, nooses hung around the country and the Tiger Woods-Golfweek scandal, Major League Baseball’s false impersonations of friendships and ill-contrived questions further press sensitive racial stereotypes, with no basis for suspicion,” Jackson said. “They have essentially defamed their people in their own neighborhoods.”
Baseball stepped up background checks last August, after it became public that the FBI was investigating NBA referee Tim Donaghy for betting on games. Donaghy pleaded guilty to felony charges of conspiracy to engage in wire fraud and transmitting betting information through interstate commerce, and he awaits sentencing.
MLB asked umpires to sign authorizations allowing the sport to conduct financial backgrounds checks, but umps balked.
“We did not anticipate that they would approach neighbors posing as a close colleague and friend of the umpire’s and asking them questions such as: Do you know if umpire ‘X’ is a member of the Ku Klux Klan? Does he grow marijuana plants? Does he beat his wife? Have you seen the police at his home? Does he throw wild parties?” McMorris said from India, where he was taking part in the tribute marking the 60th anniversary of the death of Mohandas K. Gandhi.
“To try to link our umpires to the Ku Klux Klan is highly offensive. It is essentially defaming the umpires in their communities by conducting a very strange and poorly executed investigation. It resembles kind of secret police in some kind of despotic nation.”
Contacted Wednesday, Christopher referred questions to Rob Manfred, baseball’s executive vice president for labor relations. Manfred did not immediately return a call.
“The claims of inappropriate questions by individuals conducting background checks was brought to our attention and looked into,” Jimmie Lee Solomon, MLB’s executive vice president of operations, said in a statement. “It was determined that these claims were inaccurate. Questioning was conducted with a written script consistent with common practice, and there was no inappropriate conduct on behalf of the investigators.”
MARLINS: Free-agent outfielder Luis Gonzalez and Florida have reached a preliminary agreement on a $2 million, one-year contract.
Gonzalez must pass a physical for the deal to be finalized, the Associated Press reported. The contract for the 40-year-old Gonzalez includes $1 million in performance bonuses.
Gonzalez, who has spent most of his career in left field, likely will be Florida’s fourth outfielder. Left fielder Josh Willingham and right fielder Jeremy Hermida return as starters.
Gonzalez hit .278 with 15 home runs and 68 RBI last season for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He played in 139 games but became a part-time player in the second half of the season.
He’s a career .284 hitter with 346 home runs, including 57 for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001. The Marlins will be his sixth team.
PHILLIES: Free-agent third baseman Pedro Feliz and Philadelphia finalized an $8.5 million, two-year contract.
With the option and performance bonuses, the contract could be worth up to $15 million over three years.
Feliz hit .253 with 20 homers and 72 RBI for San Francisco last season.
Last year, Philadelphia’s third-base trio of Greg Dobbs, Wes Helms and Abraham Nunez batted .255 with 11 homers and 76 RBIs. Dobbs and Helms are still on the roster.
Feliz had spent his entire career with the Giants. The eight-year veteran has been a full-time starter since 2004, averaging 21 homers and 84 RBI.
Feliz, who turns 33 on April 27, is a career .252 hitter with a .288 on-base percentage.
LEYRITZ: Former major leaguer Jim Leyritz was ordered to take daily breathalyzer tests while he awaits trial on DUI manslaughter charges.
Judge Marc Gold said Leyritz must stay away from drugs and alcohol while waiting for trial, and he must blow into a machine three times a day to prove he is following orders.
Leyritz pleaded not guilty Thursday to a recently added charge of DUI manslaughter by unlawful blood-alcohol levels. He previously pleaded not guilty to a charge of DUI manslaughter with impairment in the death of Fredia Ann Veitch. Leyritz faces 15 years in prison if convicted.
The 44-year-old ex-catcher did not speak on his way in or out of the courtroom. A message left for his attorney, Mike Dutko, was not immediately returned.
Police said the 44-year-old ex-catcher drove his sport utility vehicle through a red light Dec. 28 in Fort Lauderdale and crashed into Veitch’s car. Blood-test results showed Leyritz’s blood-alcohol content three hours after the crash was 0.14 percent, above Florida’s legal limit of 0.08.
He played for six major league teams and was last in the majors in 2000, ending his 11-year career. In 1996, he homered for the New York Yankees in Game 4 of the World Series against Atlanta. The homer made it 6-6, and the Yankees won in 10 innings. New York took the series in six games for its first title in 18 years.
NATIONALS: Catcher Johnny Estrada and Washington agreed to a $1.25 million, one-year contract.
REDS: Right-hander Matt Belisle agreed to a one-year, $1.25 million contract.
Associated Press
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