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 ESPN Deportes will air a special three-part series on Sunday, Sept. 28, Monday, Sept. 29 and Tuesday, Sept. 30 on former Major League Baseball pitcher Ugueth Urbina, currently serving a 14- year sentence in Venezuela for the attempted murder of four workers on his family's ranch. The segments will air as part of the nightly SportsCenter (11 p.m. and 2 p.m.) and repeat on the morning SportsCenter.
Baseball expert Ernesto Jerez and a camera crew were allowed exclusive and unprecedented access for two days into the Penitenciaria General de Venezuela, the maximum-security prison in San Juan de los Morros, where Urbina is currently incarcerated.
In part one, Urbina, once considered among the most effective closers in MLB, describes life behinds and his hope for regaining freedom. Part two shows Urbinas' 10 x 6 cell, fitted with a color television, a small refrigerator and a laptop computer, as well as footage of him playing on a prison basketball league team. In the series final segment Jerez asks Urbina about his family and future plans as he awaits a court date for a appeal his defense lawyer presented in June of 2007.
Excerpts:
Jerez: How would you describe your life as a player compared to your life now in prison?
Urbina: "Well, the difference is huge. When I played baseball, I had all the comforts and all the success. I was in a completely different world... here in jail, it's the complete opposite; you begin to see what suffering can be from a young age."
Urbina: "The days are never the same here. Never. There are days, as we call them here... there are visiting days and routine days where there is this routine you have set up from the minute you wake up. If you want to play sports, you do or maybe you watch a TV show or something... you try, you know, to stay busy all day long."
Urbina on why he has never permitted visits from his children: "Everyone has their ideology. Mine was never to have my children see me in a situation such as this. I know I'm in their hearts and that's what is important to me."
Ernesto Jerez will appear on ESPN Deportes Radio's baseball show "Decima Entrada" to talk about his experience Sunday, Sept. 21 at 12 p.m. ET. The radio interview will be streamed on ESPNdeportes.com the same day, along with behind-the-scenes photos from the interview. A behind the scenes look at this production will also appear in the November issue of ESPN La Revista. The three-part series was produced by the ESPN Deportes Feature Unit, winner earlier this year of a coveted Edward Murrow Award for "Outstanding News Series." Source: ESPN Deportes
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