PHOENIX — Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Starling Marte announced on social media that his wife Noelia has died of a heart attack.
“Today I go through the great pain of making public the unfortunate death of my wife Noelia, due to a heart attack,” Marte wrote on Instagram on Monday. “It is a moment of indescribable pain. On behalf of my family, I am grateful for the expressions of esteem and solidarity in this difficult time.”
Hoy paso por el gran dolor de informar el lamentable fallecimiento de mi esposa Noelia, a causa de un infarto. Es un momento de mucha tristeza.
I go through the pain of making public the unfortunate death of my wife Noelia, due to a heart attack. It is a moment of great sorrow. pic.twitter.com/UEP4k8dLBW
— Starling Marte (@Starlingmart) May 19, 2020
“We are deeply saddened to learn of tragic passing of Noelia Marte,” the Diamondbacks wrote on social media. “Starling and his family are part of the D-backs’ family and we will do all we can to support him and their children during this incredibly difficult time.”
The 31-year-old Marte has played his entire eight-year big league career with the Pittsburgh Pirates before being traded to the Diamondbacks during the offseason.
The Pirates also responded on social media, saying “the entire Pirates family extend our deepest condolences to Starling Marte and family during this terrible time.”
RICHIE GARCIA was among baseball’s best-rated and most popular umpires, and like many umps was known for the ones he missed: the Jeffrey Maier call in the playoffs, the pitch to Tino Martinez in the World Series.
He lost his job in the failed labor strategy of mass resignations in 1999 and was welcomed back to Major League Baseball two years later as a supervisor. Then, out of nowhere it seemed, he was fired on the eve of the 2010 season.
Garcia stayed quiet for a decade, not wanting to cause any problems for son-in-law Vic Carapazza, among the top umps of the current group.
Now, at 77, Garcia is fed up. He’s feeling impugned by a former colleague in a lawsuit Garcia has nothing to do with.
“I worked too hard to keep a good reputation in baseball for these people to just come out and say whatever the hell they want, to just say things just out of the clear blue sky,” Garcia said during a series of interviews in the past month with The Associated Press.
“I’ve kept my mouth shut all these years because of my son-in-law. I kept my mouth shut because I’m protecting him and my daughter. And I’m just sick of it,” he said.
A big league umpire from 1975-99 and a supervisor for nine years, Garcia was abruptly dismissed. The commissioner’s office announced his departure two days before opening day. No reason was given.
Garcia never tried to explain.
Then last month, a May 2019 deposition by umpire supervisor Randy Marsh was publicly filed by lawyers for umpire Ángel Hernández, who sued MLB for race discrimination. Marsh alleged Garcia was fired because he attended minor league games involving Carapazza, who worked his first big league game seven days after Garcia’s departure was announced.
“His son-in-law was umpiring in the minor leagues, was in strong consideration for promotion to the major leagues, and he was told not to go watch him work, because of being related to him,” Marsh testified. “He continued to do so. He had been told not to do it, and he continued to do it.”
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