“The guy has got an awful lot of courage” - Notorious MLB umpire Angel Hernandez believes he is receiving unfair treatment because he is a minority

The well-known Major League Baseball umpire Angel Hernandez is currently pursuing legal action against the MLB, claiming that he gets an unfair shake because he is Hispanic. Hernandez first filed a claim regarding this in 2017. However, the case eventually got thrown out in 2021.

"Umpire Angel Hernandez alleges MLB manipulated reviews to make minorities look bad." - @ Jomboy Media

Hernandez has been umpiring at the Major League level for quite some time now, and over the past few years, he has built a reputation for making a lot of mistakes during games. Although mistakes do happen, Hernandez is notorious for making many mistakes that cost teams winning games.

"One of many blown calls by Angel Hernandez and a signature Hawk rant to follow." - @ Sox On 35th

Although Hernandez does acknowledge that he has messed up in the past, he still believes he has received unfair treatment throughout Major League Baseball because he is a minority. Hernandez cites the fact that he has been excluded from umpiring the World Series in recent seasons, despite having over thirty years of experience umpiring at the Major League level.

He mentions race in the fact that there is not enough minority representation among MLB umpires, and this is due to the MLB altering their umpiring metrics to give minorites an unfair shake. Hernandez then claimed that is why there has been just one minority crew chief in the league's 150 years of existence. He ultimately believes the MLB changes and manipulates their metrics against minority umpires to hinder them from rising to crew chief.

What does this mean for Angel Hernandez's umpiring future?

Justin Turner of the LA Dodgers disputes a Hernandez call during the Division Series, Los Angeles Dodgers v San Francisco Giants Game 2.

Hernandez's original 2017 case was thrown out in 2021. The judge ruled that there was no racism involved in the decision to exclude Hernandez from the World Series. However, Hernandez still believes there is more to be looked at, especially when it comes to umpire reviews.

From 2011 to 2016, which was the period of time was covered in Hernandez's complaint, he refers to the umpire's midseason and end-of-year reviews. He said that despite having good midseason reviews, his end-of-year reviews did not reflect the same as the midseason reviews. He believes this was to make him out to be worse than he actually was.

"Angel Hernandez is flat out atrocious" - @ Sox On 35th

It is no suprise to anybody that Hernandez makes his fair share of mistakes during baseball games. To be fair, however, he has been umpiring in the MLB for more than thirty years. That amount of time provides a lot of opportunity for him to mess up and to become a household name. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this and if what Angel Hernandez says is true.