YUCATAN MANAGER RIVERA SUSPENDED, FINED FOR UMP RUN-IN

For the second time this month, a member of the Yucatan Leones will have to sit out games after a disturbance with a Mexican League umpire. However, instead of a Yucatan player, this time the culprit is Leones manager Lino Rivera.

Rivera, a former pitcher in the Rangers and Tigers systems, was tossed from a game last Thursday in Puebla. Apparently, his actions were such that Liga President Plinio Escalante slapped Rivera with a seven-game suspension and a fine of 25,000 pesos (or about $2,000US).

Yucatan team CEO Wilbert Valle Acevedo sent a letter of protest to the LMB office in Mexico City, asking why Rivera’s suspension was for seven games. Escalante is said to have been at the game in Puebla when the Leones manager was ejected.

Valle said the Leones had no problems with umpires in the first half of the season, but Yucatan has lost former outfielder Willie Romero and now Rivera to suspensions following altercations with the men in blue. Romero was traded to Saltillo shortly after his two-game banishment. Rivera is in his second season managing in Yucatan, and has won 109 of 187 games in that span.