Umpire Says Federation Missed Call : Baseball: San Diegan says he was made the scapegoat after brawl.

Dan Pedersen didn’t kiss the runway. But he sure felt like doing so.

A baseball umpire, Pedersen called himself safe at home late Monday after a tumultuous four-day ordeal in Cuba in the Pan American Games.

“The first thing I said was, ‘God bless America.’ I’m so glad to be home,” said Pedersen, who fled Havana on his own accord after becoming the center of attention in one of the most controversial brawls in the 40-year history of the Games.

Pedersen was umpire for Thursday’s game between Canada and Mexico, a contest he stopped when a fight erupted before the sixth inning with Mexico leading, 7-5. Mexican officials, one of whom already had been ejected by Pedersen, said a racial slur touched off the violence.

In the aftermath, Pedersen left the Games after disputes with the Confederation of Pan American Baseball (COPABE).

After having touched down after an 18-hour return to San Diego, Pedersen, 33, touched on what it was like.

“I was singled out,” he said. “In all honesty, they singled me out because I was an American. They tried to intimidate me, and I would not be intimidated.

“A brawl occurred. They don’t punish the teams involved. They don’t punish the Mexican official, who had been ejected earlier in the game for yelling obscenities from the dugout. Their way of solving it was, ‘Let’s get rid of the American umpire.’

“Obviously, they have no respect for the integrity of the game, and they have no respect for the authority of an umpire. None whatsoever.

“This does not faze me one bit, looking at it from what it was really about. This was purely a political statement about Latin American countries and their dealing with the United States.”

Pedersen was expelled from the Games on Friday, reinstated on Saturday and told Sunday he probably wouldn’t work any games anyway. COPABE never gave him a reason for any of its actions.

The COPABE is made up of six officials from Latin American countries and one each from the United States and Canada.

Pedersen said there were differences of opinion on all issues, even the seating arrangement at meetings. On one side of the table sat the six Latin American officials. On the other, separated by a huge gap, sat the Canadian and the American.

The translators, Pedersen said, were little help in what little negotiating took place.

Where better translators were needed, Pedersen said, was at the game that touched off everything.

In the second inning, Pedersen ejected an official from the Mexican dugout for continually cursing and making lewd gestures. Pedersen found out later the man was Alonso Perez, head of the Mexican Baseball Federation and incoming president of the COPABE.

Later, but still before Pedersen knew who Perez was, Pedersen instructed police to remove Perez from the stands because of his continuing assaults.

The brawl started when a Mexican player and the Canadian catcher exchanged words and then fisticuffs. At the time the fight started, Pedersen said, he was having discussions with both managers about a disturbance only minutes before after a Canadian runner made a hard but legal slide on an inning-ending double play in the fifth.

The brawl put at least one coach from each country in the hospital. John Upham of Canada suffered an angina attack, and Antonio Pollorena of Mexico received a gash over his eye.

“The Canadian coach was on the ground on his back. Eyes fluttering. He looked dead,” Pedersen said. “On the other side of the field there was this Mexican bleeding profusely all over the side of his head.”

Pedersen, who was kicked in the back of the legs and knocked to the ground, called it the worst incident he has seen in 18 years of umpiring.

At 18, he was umpiring in the minor leagues. At 26, he became the youngest umpire in the history of the College World Series.

He has worked three CWS, 10 NCAA Regionals. He and his partner, Dana DeMuth, a longtime friend from Ontario Chaffey High and now a National League umpire, conduct camps in the off-season.

Pedersen, who works at General Dynamics, refused to restart the game after the brawl, even at the insistence of COPABE president Edwin Zerpa.

“I defied him,” Pedersen said. “I said, ‘There’s no way. I refuse to restart the game. For the safety of the ballplayers, for the safety of myself and my crew and for the integrity of the game, this game is not playable at this point.’ ”

Pedersen also defied an order by Zerpa to determine the outcome of the game and explain it to the 3,000 or so fans, most of whom were rooting for Mexico.

Then, the next morning, Pedersen got into a shouting match with COPABE representative Efrin Bernier of Puerto Rico.

By this time, Pedersen only wanted to go home.

“In the back of my mind, I did have a fear of being harassed and detained,” said Pedersen, who added that police followed him thereafter and restricted his phone calls.

Even after securing a charter to Miami early Monday morning, Pedersen said he was not home free.

“They stopped the plane and the military reboarded,” he said. “They came in looking for somebody. And with my experience down there, I wasn’t sure if it was me or not because I did make a semi-critical comment about Cuba over the phone back to the States. I didn’t know if they were looking for me, so I buried my head in a corner and pretended I was asleep.”