Three Dominican referees work in the Major League preseason
Three referees of Dominican nationality will work during the preseason games in the Major Leagues on Tuesday.
For the first time in history, a trio of Dominican umpires will work on a day of the Major League spring games, two of them assigned to the same game, something that had not happened at this level either.
Ramón de Jesús Ferrer, the first Dominican umpire in the Major Leagues, is assigned along with his compatriot Félix Neón, a young talent with great projection, to work the game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays in Dunedin, Florida, at starting at 1:07 p.m.
Hardlen Acosta, a Samaná native, will work home plate during the 12:05 noon game between the New York Mets and the Washington Nationals in West Palm Beach, Florida.
“For LIDOM, it is particularly important that two Dominican referees coincide in the same Major League game in their training games and, more importantly, that there are three who were assigned to work on the same day,” said Vitelio. Mejía Ortiz, president of LIDOM.
“We received this notification as a reliable sign that we are in the correct process of training our judges on the field, both our traditional referees and the development of young talent. LIDOM has the firm intention of resuming its referee academy in the face of the evident overcoming of the limitations of the COVID-19 pandemic that motivated its recess, ”he added.
Jorge Bauza, supervisor of umpires in the Dominican league and head of umpires in the Minor Leagues (MILB), said that this milestone also makes clear the potential of the Dominican Republic in terms of arbitration.
“I am very happy and proud of this important achievement achieved by these youngsters that will help them continue on their way to achieve the goal of reaching the Major Leagues,” said Bauza about Neón and Acosta. “We will continue to work hard to provide our referees with these kinds of opportunities and also open the door for others to enter professional refereeing. We have the talent, what we have to do is give him the opportunities”.
Within the “crew” in which Ferrer and Neón will be, there is also the American DJ Reyburn, a referee who acted in the recent past in the Quiqueyano winter baseball tournament.