04/23/24
March 28, 2007
Maybe he'll get the save on appeal: Former MLB closer Ugueth Urbina draws a reported 14-year sentence for his part in the attempted murder of five workers on his farm in Venezuela.
Ugie, Ugie, we hardly knew ye...
posted by GoBirds at 06:09 PM on March 28, 2007
By far the best trade by Dave Dombrowski. By far.
posted by wingnut4life at 06:30 PM on March 28, 2007
By far the worst trade by Ed Wade. By far. But at least the Phillies had and still have a stud third baseman so, you know, they couldn't have moved Polanco to third or anything.
posted by SummersEve at 04:25 AM on March 29, 2007
Dang...my headline was gonna be "From the Closer to the Slammer." It's got a nice ring.
posted by The_Black_Hand at 05:24 AM on March 29, 2007
It's kind of strange how a story of a major leaguer who was involved, in some way, with the machete/gas burning of five people only draws random interest since it happened in Venezuala. In the meantime, if an athlete in the U.S. is found with residue of some sort in a water bottle compartment, it generates outrage and hundreds of comments, stories, etc. This story reinforces to me how sheltered most of us are in the U.S.A.
posted by dyams at 07:20 AM on March 29, 2007
Ok. this may sound stupid...what "Geddy Lee story" was olelefthander talking about earlier in this thread?
posted by IRUNNIKE87 at 08:17 AM on March 29, 2007
Forget it...story on Fantasy Baseball. Christ, I thought something big happened! Whew!
posted by IRUNNIKE87 at 08:19 AM on March 29, 2007
Sorry, I shouldn't have assumed everyone would see both stories like I did. The previous post was about Geddy Lee being in a fantasy baseball league that supposedly has the most complex scoring system to more fully emulate reality. So I made a lame joke about their rules taking into account one of your players being convicted of attempted murder. I'll do a better job of staying on topic. I apologize again.
posted by olelefthander at 09:28 AM on March 29, 2007
No - that was fine. Uggie seems to have been a complete asshole in this case. But really - what is there to say?
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 09:44 AM on March 29, 2007
Thank goodness the Tigers traded him b4 all this...but Dombrowski has been nothing but genius these last few years. I'd have to agree about it being his best trade so far, we got Polanco, and I was worried about our perennially poor pitching when this trade happened. It's a good thing I'm not the Tiggers GM or we would still be at the bottom of the division, minus a closer and no Placido...
posted by dezznutz at 12:28 PM on March 29, 2007
I'm not going to argue that Polanco for Urbina wasn't a good trade for the Tigers, but discussing Dombrowski in this thread gives the appearance that you think he's a genius for unloading Urbina before he started trying to kill people, as though Dave totally saw this coming. I guess Dan O'Dowd is a genius for unloading Darryl Kile before he died. I enjoyed watching UUU as a player, and I'm a little sorry for him -- more sorry for the baseball world -- that his life has taken this bizarre turn.
posted by The Crafty Sousepaw at 02:56 PM on March 29, 2007
dyams, I think part of the muted reaction is because this is old news, at least a little bit. If you look here (eighth topic down), you'll see that it was posted about here back in 2005. The Yahoo! link doesn't work anymore, but I remember reading it here shortly after it happened. Perhaps the past year-and-a-half worth of trials has simply dulled us as it applies to this case. I'd heard on and off about it over the past year, and it sounded like he wasn't going to get out of it, so the sentencing may have been a little anticlimactic for some of us. Plus, there's no Ugueth Urbina Name Generator that I know of, which makes the Vick-in-a-bottle story much more fun. That, and Mike didn't take a flaming machete to anybody.
posted by The_Black_Hand at 04:38 PM on March 29, 2007
but discussing Dombrowski in this thread gives the appearance that you think he's a genius for unloading Urbina before he started trying to kill people, as though Dave totally saw this coming. No but he did unload Urbina after he started messing up team chemistry and got into a fight with other players on the team plane. Now I think unloading him after that would be a given for most GM's, but I like to give Mr. Dombrowski some credit from time to time.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 06:42 PM on March 29, 2007
I'd heard on and off about it over the past year, and it sounded like he wasn't going to get out of it, so the sentencing may have been a little anticlimactic for some of us. Wasn't there something in the one of the old articles about a bribe he would not pay to get out. He said he would not pay another bribe, after he paid one to get his mother back when she was kidnapped. I can't remember exactly what it was, it was something to that effect though.
posted by jojomfd1 at 12:52 AM on March 30, 2007
What an odd coincidence to have this posted right after the Geddy Lee story. I wonder if his really complex scoring system rewards or punishes you based on one of your players being sent off for attempted murder.