Angel Hernández: the much reviled MLB umpire decides to quit

For many fans of America’s favorite pastime, it was high time he retired.

Now, one of Major League Baseball’s most reviled umpires granted the critics’ wish.

Angel Hernández, an MLB umpire for more than 30 years, announced Monday evening that he would resign.

The American media reacted by calling him “the most hated”, “the most controversial” and the “worst umpire” in professional baseball.

The actual data shows that Hernández was not the worst referee in the match – just below average.

But the bad calls he made were dead wrong, according to his critics.

Since umpiring his first MLB game in 1991, Hernández has earned the scorn of almost everyone.

“Every time I watched or went to a game, regardless of the team, when you saw that (Angel Hernández) was behind the plate, you knew it was going to be a disaster,” said Roberta Newman, a professor at the New York University who wrote several books on baseball.

“It’s not just a matter of opinion. He constantly misses calls and is extremely inaccurate.

Hernández’s job was not easy: He used the naked eye to track a ball flying in a split second from pitcher to home plate at more than 100 mph (160 km/h).

But forgiveness can be rare in an $11bn (£8.6bn) sports league.

He received the most criticism for calls he made in the strike zone – the targeted area that the baseball must pass through on its way to the batter to be considered a strike rather than a ball (a pitch that is not swung by the batter).

After Hernández’s retirement was announced, an “anti-highlight reel” surfaced on X, formerly Twitter, featuring some of his nastiest calls.

One clip shows him calling for a strike for a ball thrown well outside the strike zone, prompting the sportscaster to laugh and say “that wasn’t even close.”

In one of the most viral moments, Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Kyle Schwarber slammed his baseball bat and helmet to the ground, walked toward Hernández and yelled at him — inches from his face.

“He needs to find another job,” Ian Kinsler, a former MLB athlete, said of Hernández in 2017.

Intense criticism of MLB umpires is nothing new, however, Professor Newman points out. “It’s a common thread throughout baseball history.”

She cites the popular poem Mother May I Slug the Umpire, published in the Chicago Tribune in 1886.

And television has only added to referees’ woes, Professor Newman notes. Once the strike zone was digitized for television in the early 2000s – appearing on screen as a white rectangular box – it created a nation of increasingly opinionated armchair umpires.

“Now you can see how bad this decision is for you,” says Professor Newman. “It adds to the enmity.”

There are, however, other indications that Hernández made the wrong calls, Professor Newman says.

Although he had been in the MLB for 34 seasons, he had not worked a World Series game since 2005, nor had he officiated a League Championship Series since 2016.

He was also never promoted to team leader like many others with his level of occupation.

That prompted Cuban-born Hernández to file a lawsuit against the league in 2017, alleging racial discrimination. A federal appeals court threw out the lawsuit last year.

The BBC has contacted his lawyer for comment on his decision to retire and whether it was motivated by the outcome of the trial.

Announcing his retirement, Hernández said in a statement: “Since my first Major League game in 1991, I have had the great experience of living my childhood dream as an umpire in the Major Leagues.

“There is nothing better than doing a job you love. »

Despite the vitriol, the game loved him back, says Ricardo Rodriguez, director of the Baseball Heritage Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.

“I believe the relationship between MLB umpires and fans is an amalgam of love and hate,” Mr. Rodriguez said.

“Someone has to make the calls, and not all calls are black and white.”