Baseball: Urbina draws sentence
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 from Caracas, Venezuela.
Urbina, a former pitcher with the Montreal Expos, Boston Red Sox, Texas Rangers, Florida Marlins, 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.
The 32-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.
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.
Sabathia takes hard shot
C.C. Sabathia looked down and saw a big knot rising on his left arm. The Cleveland Indians had ones growing just as quickly in their stomachs.
Sabathia’s forearm was bruised when he was struck by a line drive in his final spring training tuneup at Winter Haven, Fla., putting in doubt his scheduled start in the Indians’ season opener next week at Chicago.
Sabathia instinctively threw up his arms but the 6-foot-7 left-hander was unable to elude the hard shot off the bat of Toronto leadoff hitter Reed Johnson.
Cubs ship Prior to Iowa
Mark Prior was sent to the minors where the Chicago Cubs hope he can regain the form that made him an 18-game winner and All-Star selection four years ago. Prior, whose career has been slowed by an assortment of injuries, was optioned to Triple-A Iowa right after his final spring training start.
Clearing the bases
The Texas Rangers optioned right-handed relievers Frank Francisco and former Spokane Indian Wes Littleton to Triple-A Oklahoma. After going 2-1 with a 1.73 ERA in 33 appearances as a rookie for the Rangers last spring, Littleton has struggled this spring. He was 0-2 with a 15.00 ERA in seven games. … At Tampa, Fla., George Steinbrenner’s daughter filed divorce papers this week against husband Steve Swindal, a move that appears to end his chance to take over as head of the New York Yankees. … Former soccer star Mia Hamm, wife of Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Nomar Garciaparra, has delivered twin girls. … Dodgers outfielder Jason Repko underwent surgery to reattach two hamstring tendons to his pelvic bone.