On October 15th 2005, Ugueth Urbina and his friends attacked five of his ranch hands with a machete and set them on fire. He accused them of stealing one of his pistols and other items. The five victims were Vinkler Gallegos, Ricardo Osal, Mickel Enchenique, Argenis Farias, Tony Rodriguez and Bernardo Navarros.
Gallegos had bruises on his face and ribs. Osal had to receive 300 stitches to close wounds on his back and 150 stitches to repair severed tendons in his hands. Echenique had minor injuries and several contusions. Farias had fractures in his nose and cheekbone, Rodriguez had burns on his neck and in his right ear as well as injuries to his face and his eyes. He also suffered a knife cut on his right arm and a perforated eardrum. Navarros had burns on approximately 50 percent of his body.
Osal said afterwards that Urbina told them that he was going to kill all of them and bury them underneath his ranch and that at one point Urbina left him for dead as he was bleeding on the ground saying, “He’ll be the first one we bury.”
Rodriguez recalls that after Urbina’s friends were setting them on fire using gasoline and paint thinner. they were allowing them to jump in a pool to distinguish the flames.
When the police were called to the ranch the following morning, Urbina claimed to know nothing of the event stating that they victims had been drinking since 3pm the previous day and story was coming from being extremely drunk.
Urbina was granted free agency on November 1st 2005 by the Philadelphia Phillies and six days later he was arrested by Venezuelan authorities. He was charged with attempted murder. He was convicted of that charge on March 28th 2007 and sentenced to 14 years and 7 months in prison.
It appears that Urbina is no stranger to being on the wrong side of the law. In 2000 he was accused of assaulting a man in a Montreal night club when he was with the Expos. Then, four years later, he was jailed shortly for discharging a fire arm while under the influence of alcohol. His other encounters with the Venezuelan police include two counts of allegedly fighting and one traffic incident for running over an elderly man, all of which were resolved out of court.
Back in September 2004, Urbina was also in the news, but this time it was him and his family that were the victims. His mother, Maura Villarreal, was kidnapped. She was later rescued on February 18th 2005. The rescue resulted in the death of one of her kidnappers and the capture of her others. They did not collect on the $6 million dollars they were demanding for her rescue.
Urbina spent 11 years in the majors. He had a 44-49 record with a 3.45 ERA while accumulating 237 saves with six different teams. He was a two time All-Star in 1998 with the Montreal Expos and 2002 with the Boston Red Sox. While in Montreal, he lead the league in saves in 1999 with 41.
Baseball's Moments of Shame 
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