MEXICO: Othello at the Bat

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It was the first half of the eighth inning at Parque Delta, home grounds of the Mexico City baseball team Azules de Vera Cruz; the Torreón Laguneros were leading the Azules 3 to 1. Torreón's star Negro shortstop, 26-year-old Othello Renfroe of Jacksonville, Fla., rapped a slow roller to second base and tried to beat the throw to first. Umpire Ramón Montes de Oca, 65, cried "Fuera!" (out). In such a situation Shortstop Renfroe, like another celebrated Othello, found himself little blest with the soft phrase of peace.

"You old blind fool!" cried Renfroe. "That throw hit me!" Ignoring the 6-ft. player's complaint, Umpire Montes, who speaks no English, stoutly repeated "Fuera." Thereupon Renfroe unleashed a right to his jaw and Umpire Montes was completely fuera.

As enraged Azules fans began boiling out of the bleachers, police hastily surrounded Othello Renfroe and escorted him two blocks to a police station, where he was fined 250 pesos ($29) for assault & battery. That night, after Torreón had won the game 5 to 4, the Association of Umpires wired Doctor Eduardo Quijano, president of the Mexican Baseball League, announcing that no further umpiring would take place in the league until Renfroe had been expelled. Next morning, before the league had had time to act on the umpires' demand, government agents picked Renfroe up and put him aboard a plane for San Antonio.

The Mexican press took a fine, impartial stand, applauding the government's expulsion order, but deploring the loss of a good shortstop. La Prensa's sport editor philosophically pointed out that, after all, everyone knows that Mexican umpires walk out on the field with "Jesús en la boca" (i.e., with a prayer on their lips).