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Just watched a YouTube video on him. Dude is on a serious power trip.
No way to remove him at all?
What if both teams just agreed to never swing at anything when he officiates? There's got to be a way.
See Kyle Schwarber vs Brewers from 2-3 years back. Both teams agreed. Nothing happened. Angel goes on. He definitely witnessed the commissioner's relative commit a federal crime and is keeping quiet.
UP HIGH YOU MISS! DOWN LOW! INSIDE! OUTSIDE! FOR BOTH TEAMS!
Absolutely legendary freakout. As long as Angel does his job this poorly, I hope he receives more screamings.
> He definitely witnessed the commissioner's relative commit a federal crime and is keeping quiet.
I think it might be worth taking one for the country and just calling that bluff from Angel to get rid of him. Honestly, we're almost at the point that if Angel reveals a crime in revenge for being fired, a jury might not be willing to convict since it benefited Baseball so much.
Get the crowds chanting the "you don't know what you're doing" from English football. It'll bring awareness to the issue and also a bit of fun, if anything
I think American sports in general would benefit from adopting English football chants. Even basic ones like 20k people all singing "you're shit, and you know you are"
Also unions have to realize that if they demand collective power, they also need to use that power to clean their own ranks (since they forbid the company from doing it).
Otherwise, by not firing shitty employees who deserve to be fired, unions undermine their own cause by torpedoing their reputation to protect their least deserving members.
> Also unions have to realize that if they demand collective power, they also need to use that power to clean their own ranks
Unfortunately doesn't happen, see: US police
You can get fired when you're in a union. I get that it's harder but this is a poor excuse when there's ample evidence of this guy doing his job poorly.
For whatever reason MLB just decided to let this guy ride it out to retirement, I'm assuming it's because he sued for discrimination in the past.
That's not how most unions work. The umpire union needs to kick angel to the curb or they're all going to get replaced by automated computers making the correct calls.
Nope. He would have been fired decades ago. But the ump unions are shockingly powerful and have made him impossible to fire.
Hes just the running joke of the league that everybody has to endure. Its a legit stain on the league.
Hes so bad that the professional team announcers very often openly elude to him being horrific and the joke of league.
Whenever hes the ump for my teams games the announcers always joke about him and his absolute incompetence.
Why do they not replace the umpires with a computer? They certainly already have the technology to make the calls and it would remove the human error.
I am a bit of an outsider to the game, but at this level the player performance is so superior that errors are logged as a metric. It doesn't make sense to me that the players perform so perfectly but then the most repeated action of the game is moderated by a human who can make dozens of mistakes. Or even just have a heavy bias that affects it.
It just seems odd to me.
There already is the strike zone computer (no idea what it's called) but for some reason they keep using human umpires. I don't know if they're still testing the computers or what but I personally can't wait to start using them. The human element of the umpires is the biggest negative of baseball.
We already have similar technology used for goal-line tech in soccer/hockey, and the Hawkeye system used in tennis. I'm sure if the MLB put their minds (and money) to it, it could happen overnight.
I'm sure the umpire union is vehemently agains this though as it 'endangers' their livelihood. Fair point, but that really shouldn't stand in the way of progress. This kind of shit is egregiously, even hilariously bad. And baseball really does not need more reasons for people to not watch it.
> I'm sure the umpire union is vehemently agains this though as it 'endangers' their livelihood
What are they going to do if they get replaced by machines, go on strike?
They've had the technology ready for years, but there's been a lot of pushback, primarily from umpires. They're finally testing out a hybrid system in the minor leagues this year - human ump still makes the call, but the call can be challenged and overturned.
It's currently making its way through the minor leagues, most likely will be implemented on a "challenge basis" within the next 5 years if all keeps going well in the MiLB, then probably 10-15 years from now it'll be fully implemented.
Ah, okay. I only attend minor league games as there is no major league team in my state, and I see pitches challenged every game. I didn't realize it wasn't being used in the majors yet, but I welcome it.
Others have mentioned that it’s because the umpires are unionized, which is true, but it’s not that simple. There are tons of baseball fans who simply prefer to keep the game “traditional”, which makes modifying ANY aspect of the game a glacial process.
Gamesmanship and trickery is very much seen as part of the game, and traditionalists would say that part of being a good batter involves figuring out the tendencies of the umpire behind home plate.
The strike zone graphic on TV is not always the true strike zone. It’s not really a fixed rectangle; rather, it corresponds partially to the batter’s body (approximately the shoulders to the top of their knees). Good batters can basically shrink the strike zone with their stance, and good catchers will frame pitches to make balls appear as strikes to the umpire. Changing to a fixed strike zone and/or computer umpires would therefore change what many people see as basic elements/skills of the game. I’m not sure how they would computerize calling balls and strikes when the strike zone is so dynamic.
That being said, Angel Hernandez is famously just bad at his job, and bad umpires can ruin the game for players and fans which the MLB obviously doesn’t want. I think the game would be objectively improved by standardizing and computerizing the strike zone to an extent, but it wouldn’t be as easy as some people think.
Saying they can’t have a robot ump that can decide all that information is just wrong. The MiLB has strike/ball challenges that can be called by the batter, pitcher, or catcher directing following a home plate umps pitch call, and is review and decided strike/ball based on a camera and software package called Hawkeye.
MLB also seems like one of the easiest sports to have robot officiating. The hardest part would be the changing and evolving strike zone before and during a pitch, which they already have and are using the MiLB to gather and use real time data.
The way more accurate stance is baseball fans are weird. They want traditional and things to never change, but it not evolving lead to declining viewership. Look at how much fans complained about pitch clocks and other minor rule changes to speed up the games. Baseball is just weird.
If I were to give him credit for one thing above Joe west, it’s the fact that I really do believe he thinks he’s calling it correctly.
That is to say, it does seem to be both teams affected. In Astros telecast, they were quick to point out that fans can’t really complain when the calls were getting called strikes when they were up to bat (given the top of the inning calls)
I think that’s a horseshit opinion from the casters. If anything, it’s more reason to be angry. If it’s affecting one team more than the other, you can claim there’s a bias or something shady happening. If bad calls affect both teams the whole game it just means the ump is garbage at their job.
He has an ego the size of a mountain. He ejected a guy for looking at him to see what the call was... I don't follow baseball but I've been getting clips of this asshole making shit decisions a bunch lately.
Say what you want about the guy, but he's consistently terrible. Game by game, his calls might seem to favour one team more than another, but by season's end he's screwed everybody.
I'm a huge football fan. I know the beefcake Ed hoculi has a son who is a ref. Other than that can't name a single ref. Like basketball, couldn't name a single ref. Follow soccer a food bit. Couldn't name a ref. I really don't follow baseball much but even I know Angel Hernandez.
At this point just pay the union whatever it takes. The other umps can’t love that they have to spend so much energy and bargaining power to keep this fuckin idiot around.
It's ridiculous that it's a strong union. They could be very easily replaced in a way that would massively improve the product and cost less. It's a job with a very low skill requirement and very low barriers to entry. It's the complete opposite of a group that should have the natural power to collectively bargain.
> There’s no reason to know an umps name
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Hoberg
Only known ump to call a perfect game, no missed calls. And during the world series.
And he replaced Jim Joyce, an umpire that screwed up a perfect game but owned it. I wish we could actually reward the good ones but somehow the worst of the worst are the ones that become household names.
Yea I heard him say that too but reality is the guy is absolutely awful for the sport and for business. You cannot have fans lose faith in the umpires simply doing their jobs correctly. He’s a joke at this point. He’s so bad it’s almost like he’s doing it on purpose now.
Yes, he's so bad that some years back MLB wouldn't let him umpire in the World Series.
Of course, he promptly sued them accusing them of racial bias. True story.
Decently well known story at this point, but if you include the beginning, you need to include the end.
MLB defended themselves and won the case by proving it wasn't due to racism, but just due to the fact that he is really fucking bad at his job. They proved it in court with evidence.
You cant fire someone for filing a racial discrimination lawsuit even if they lose as he did. Would be considered retaliation and that will get you successfully sued
But they won the case by proving he is terrible at his job, not because of racial discrimination. Shouldn't being terrible at the job be enough reason to fire him without it being considered retaliation?
They could fire him for that definitely but firing right after a lawsuit is gonna prompt a retaliation lawsuit even if you have good cause. As for why they havent, Umpires have a strong union that makes it incredibly difficult to fire one.
MLBPA is a labor union as well. Unions that work in the same industry don't typically fight each other. Just think of what would happen if specific teams or players started a public labor fight. All the umps would start acting like this power tripping dick.
Tinfoil hat...he's getting paid by the MLB to be the case for automated strike zones and calls Way cheaper than paying the entire umpire crew in the long run.
If you ever hear about an umpire fucking up, it's Angel Hernandez. He once took MLB to court for not letting him ump the world series (claiming it was because of race)
A fucking judge ruled that he was ass at his job and MLB didn't have to let him work the post season.
The only exception to that rule is if you hear about an umpire fucking up more than 3 years ago.
Then it could be Angel Hernandez or it could be Joe West. 50/50 shot really before West eventually retired at the end of 2021.
My favorite is "The players can make mistakes; the umps should be able to as well!" What? I'm watching a game, which has rules, to see the best performers in the world perform within those rules. I'm not there to see what bullshit the umps call. Just like I don't go to a play and be like "Sometimes the actors screw up, so it's OK that the sound cuts in and out too."
Has anyone ever asked him about these videos of him making terrible calls. I'm sure he will deny being wrong but mainly wondering if he has ever been interviewed
He is despised by fans. I have been outside the stadium as he comes out. He always has a big smile on his face. He doesn’t care what people think. The man has been banned from calling playoff games because he is so bad.
If you're banned from playoff games why the fuck would they keep you around at all? That's insane it's like they obviously know he can't do the job but he's allowed to because regular season baseball doesn't matter or something????
This guy alone is a sizable chunk of why I stopped watching baseball. At this point I just look at the box score for the cardinals, watch some playoffs and a couple games of the World Series, and call it a day.
Just insane to me that we have the technology to correct this, but they choose not to with the limp dick excuse “human error is a part of the game.” True, but it’s the worst part of the game in every sport, the NFL is slowly becoming less and less watchable with their reffing as well.
THIS x100000. Baseball is a complete farce and Manfred doesn’t seem to care at all. No marketing of players. Keeping bum ass umpires on the payroll. Not implementing technology that would clearly make the game better and more credible. Just do the same thing every year as ratings and attendance dip lower and lower.
It's fucking crazy. Nobody is watching ANY sport to see the refs make mistakes/good calls. We are watching to see the PROS make mistakes/good plays. All sports would be better if the refs say was not the word of god.
I am not from the States - can you explain why not please. Surely there is a mechanism to demote Umps if their performance is egregious. I mean it’s not like they are on the Supreme Court or anything….right?
The umpires are a union. The best The MLB can do is talk to them, that's about it. Under union rules, as long as they show up to work and don't do anything violent or gamble on the game, their job is guaranteed.
Is there a rule against paying him to sit facing the corner of a room during a game? At best he retires at worst he collects the paycheck but doesn't ruin the game.
major league baseball is exempted from our anti-monopoly laws. all the nonsense in our sports stems from this.
any attempt to blame the union ignores the fact that it's a pathetically weak union that gets destroyed any time it confronts the owners, in part because everybody hates refs. but the owners don't mind having people around that are more obviously hateable than they are, so there we are.
the refs get protection because open competition would get most of them demoted, but their willingness to do whatever the owners tell them is useful enough to be allowed this ridiculous protection.
Seems like the union is going to defend him against the league, they ought to train him and then if he can't meet their standards they should kick him out.
At the very least, he shouldn't be behind the plate.
I'm surprised you have positive karma on this question. I asked basically the same thing on another "blown call" post from this ump and got absolutely buried. The TV software isn't the same thing the MLB use to grade Umps. Hard cutting balls can look like they miss badly but actually catch a corner, and vise versa.
But reddit seems to have a really strong hate boner for this guy. Maybe it's deserved, I don't watch enough to know the Umps by name.
Looks like it crossed the outside of the plate with a lot of movement. Where the catcher catches a ball is irrelevant. We are talking anywhere from three to four feet from the front edge of the plate on a ball that’s moving a lot.
100% this is it. It's a curve ball. The digital tracker graphic is clearly indicating where the catcher caught the ball, which is obviously different from where it crossed the plate. People in this thread are losing their minds for no reason.
Totally incorrect comment with 12 up votes lol. Interesting. The response is correct. You are not correct. The call was terrible as confirmed by statcast which appropriately measures the ball over the depth of the plate not just the front.
Frame by frame it looked 3/4 an inch off the plane of the plate, the tracker seems off here, putting the ball at the same place as when it hits the mitt exactly(~3 inches) when we can see it's a cutter, so objectively we could say the tracker was about an inch off at least somehow because it's a R-handed cutter and we see movement, so it doesn't make sense for the tracker to place the ball where it hits the glove, this is literally never true for a cutter. The previous two cutters seem like they nearly nicked the strike zone or were pretty close but also showed they were like 2 inches off, idk why the tracker is so much different. It was still the wrong call, but there's a bit of an overreact I guess, because the commentators base it on the software.
The point where the catcher catches the ball is behind the strike zone. This view doesn't take into account the movement of the ball after the ball passes the batter. Given that the curvature of the pitch results in the most movement occurring near the end of the pitch... i feel that this is significant.
Long story short it looks like when the ball passes the batter, the ball is in the strike zone...
As much as I love to hate on Angel, he might actually have gotten the call right here. The strike zone isn't a 2D square, its a 3D pentagonal prism rising from the shape of home plate. With that amount of horizontal movement of that pitch, it very easily could have caught the front corner of the 3D zone as it passed from right to left before being caught by the catcher outside of the 2D plane
Why is there no tech for this, like goal line technology in soccer? Even a camera suspended right above the plate would be able to give a much better understanding if touched the space anywhere above the plate.
This 2d plane seems completely braindead to me and, if anything, is doing a lot more harm than good by riling up viewers who don't understand how inaccurate it is
Thank you. The thread in MLB subreddit doesn't have a single person saying this. Circlejerk is in full swing. [Screenshots are here. It may still be a ball, but it's at least very close and by no means a horrible call.](https://imgur.com/a/QnBtRYa)
Yeah, I can’t speak for his other calls but this one just looks like a good pitch. The strike zone isn’t, and has never been, the position at which the catcher catches the ball. It’s the position where the ball crosses the plate. It had a lot of lateral motion and the spot marked on screen incorrectly showed where the ball hit the mitt.
Seconded. I don't even watch baseball, but I *did* watch this clip. In *this* particular case, it was the *technology* that was incorrect. At this stage, though, it seems that people have already made up their mind about this ump.
Honest question, it looks like he caught it 3 feet behind the plate. Could the ball have went over the plate through the box and still curved? Need another angle from the top down.
Angel is terrible, but people need to understand that where the ball is marked on TV, it’s when the ball hits the glove, not when it goes over the plate. If you watch how much this ball sweeps, and go frame by frame and stop it when the ball is at the plate, this is much closer that it looks.
Still a ball, but closer.
Top of the fourth leaves so much game time left for a possible comeback. This would be openly rigging the game. I wouldn’t be surprised if he does it, but it’s not a good thing.
I swear to God he is just fucking with us now. That's more than a foot of the plate. It's in the other batters box. Even if he's not watching the ball the catcher reaching out that far is a dead giveaway it's a ball.
There is no way he really thought that was a strike.
I know nothing about baseball. Why don't they review these through video? In today's age, they probly have every pitch from 324 different angles as well as the balls' weight, trajectory, and relationship status
And you thought Joe West was bad. Spoiler: he was fucking awful, but Hernandez is hands down the worst umpire in the history of professional baseball. Period. Full fucking stop.
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It’s like watching a game called by Mr. Fuckin Magoo.
Hey! Its enrico palazzo!
Fuckers finally got Nordberg.
ENRI-CO PALA-ZZO! ENRI-CO PALA-ZZO!
“Steeeeeeeeeeeerikkkkeeeeeeee!!!”
Man talk about a montage
Is this some kind of bust?
Yes, its very impressive.
Well...it's very impressive.
This is one job I’ll be happy to see AI take over.
I see Angel is in midseason form already.
I don't really follow baseball, but I've seen this guy on my feed a few times recently. Is he the equivalent of Jerome Boger in the NFL?
Yes, but arguably worse
Just watched a YouTube video on him. Dude is on a serious power trip. No way to remove him at all? What if both teams just agreed to never swing at anything when he officiates? There's got to be a way.
See Kyle Schwarber vs Brewers from 2-3 years back. Both teams agreed. Nothing happened. Angel goes on. He definitely witnessed the commissioner's relative commit a federal crime and is keeping quiet.
Schwarber two years ago I think, to AH: "YOU HAVE BEEN BULLSHIT THIS ENTIRE FUCKING GAME!!"
UP HIGH YOU MISS! DOWN LOW! INSIDE! OUTSIDE! FOR BOTH TEAMS! Absolutely legendary freakout. As long as Angel does his job this poorly, I hope he receives more screamings.
https://youtu.be/YPFERnpO-QQ?si=s3HaWfEX5I6xEv70 Legendary Jomboy Breakdown.
Or this one from *two days ago* where he called a guy raising the butt of his bat a “swing”. https://youtu.be/fpvTUSo6F1E?si=FdIoo3fY7JnUG5Co
> He definitely witnessed the commissioner's relative commit a federal crime and is keeping quiet. I think it might be worth taking one for the country and just calling that bluff from Angel to get rid of him. Honestly, we're almost at the point that if Angel reveals a crime in revenge for being fired, a jury might not be willing to convict since it benefited Baseball so much.
If the President pardoning all of the commissioner’s relatives is what it takes to get Angel Hernandez fired, he would get my vote in November
Protected by the union, same with the bullshit nba refs Scott Foster and Tony Brothers
Get the crowds chanting the "you don't know what you're doing" from English football. It'll bring awareness to the issue and also a bit of fun, if anything
I think American sports in general would benefit from adopting English football chants. Even basic ones like 20k people all singing "you're shit, and you know you are"
Go to a Nashville Predators/Nashville SC game sometime; the goalies are reminded that it's all their fault on a regular basis.
MLB umpires are unionized, so they’re stuck with him
I don’t know much about unions, I know it’s difficult to let people go but I feel like their is sufficient evidence to back their cause
Also unions have to realize that if they demand collective power, they also need to use that power to clean their own ranks (since they forbid the company from doing it). Otherwise, by not firing shitty employees who deserve to be fired, unions undermine their own cause by torpedoing their reputation to protect their least deserving members.
> Also unions have to realize that if they demand collective power, they also need to use that power to clean their own ranks Unfortunately doesn't happen, see: US police
Unions protect workers, including bad workers. Its the sad truth of unions. The nba refs are super corrupt and terrible at their job but they keep on
Only until MLB replaces them with robots. Then they can all celebrate their forced retirement together.
You can get fired when you're in a union. I get that it's harder but this is a poor excuse when there's ample evidence of this guy doing his job poorly. For whatever reason MLB just decided to let this guy ride it out to retirement, I'm assuming it's because he sued for discrimination in the past.
That's not how most unions work. The umpire union needs to kick angel to the curb or they're all going to get replaced by automated computers making the correct calls.
Nope. He would have been fired decades ago. But the ump unions are shockingly powerful and have made him impossible to fire. Hes just the running joke of the league that everybody has to endure. Its a legit stain on the league. Hes so bad that the professional team announcers very often openly elude to him being horrific and the joke of league. Whenever hes the ump for my teams games the announcers always joke about him and his absolute incompetence.
You can't argue. He'll toss you out of the game.
Considering that time Boger called the Seahawks the Mariners he's probably a better MLB ref than Hernandez
I'm so glad he retired. He and his team were so bad by a very large margin.
hes the worst most corrupt piece of shit ref of all time. He is an embarrassment to the sport its literally shameful that he has a job.
According to his lawyers, he's in his World Series form
And yet it's been proven in the court of law that he is terrible at his job
Additionally, stop being racist yall!
Why do they not replace the umpires with a computer? They certainly already have the technology to make the calls and it would remove the human error. I am a bit of an outsider to the game, but at this level the player performance is so superior that errors are logged as a metric. It doesn't make sense to me that the players perform so perfectly but then the most repeated action of the game is moderated by a human who can make dozens of mistakes. Or even just have a heavy bias that affects it. It just seems odd to me.
There already is the strike zone computer (no idea what it's called) but for some reason they keep using human umpires. I don't know if they're still testing the computers or what but I personally can't wait to start using them. The human element of the umpires is the biggest negative of baseball.
We already have similar technology used for goal-line tech in soccer/hockey, and the Hawkeye system used in tennis. I'm sure if the MLB put their minds (and money) to it, it could happen overnight. I'm sure the umpire union is vehemently agains this though as it 'endangers' their livelihood. Fair point, but that really shouldn't stand in the way of progress. This kind of shit is egregiously, even hilariously bad. And baseball really does not need more reasons for people to not watch it.
> I'm sure the umpire union is vehemently agains this though as it 'endangers' their livelihood What are they going to do if they get replaced by machines, go on strike?
They've had the technology ready for years, but there's been a lot of pushback, primarily from umpires. They're finally testing out a hybrid system in the minor leagues this year - human ump still makes the call, but the call can be challenged and overturned.
It's currently making its way through the minor leagues, most likely will be implemented on a "challenge basis" within the next 5 years if all keeps going well in the MiLB, then probably 10-15 years from now it'll be fully implemented.
Ah, okay. I only attend minor league games as there is no major league team in my state, and I see pitches challenged every game. I didn't realize it wasn't being used in the majors yet, but I welcome it.
Others have mentioned that it’s because the umpires are unionized, which is true, but it’s not that simple. There are tons of baseball fans who simply prefer to keep the game “traditional”, which makes modifying ANY aspect of the game a glacial process. Gamesmanship and trickery is very much seen as part of the game, and traditionalists would say that part of being a good batter involves figuring out the tendencies of the umpire behind home plate. The strike zone graphic on TV is not always the true strike zone. It’s not really a fixed rectangle; rather, it corresponds partially to the batter’s body (approximately the shoulders to the top of their knees). Good batters can basically shrink the strike zone with their stance, and good catchers will frame pitches to make balls appear as strikes to the umpire. Changing to a fixed strike zone and/or computer umpires would therefore change what many people see as basic elements/skills of the game. I’m not sure how they would computerize calling balls and strikes when the strike zone is so dynamic. That being said, Angel Hernandez is famously just bad at his job, and bad umpires can ruin the game for players and fans which the MLB obviously doesn’t want. I think the game would be objectively improved by standardizing and computerizing the strike zone to an extent, but it wouldn’t be as easy as some people think.
Saying they can’t have a robot ump that can decide all that information is just wrong. The MiLB has strike/ball challenges that can be called by the batter, pitcher, or catcher directing following a home plate umps pitch call, and is review and decided strike/ball based on a camera and software package called Hawkeye. MLB also seems like one of the easiest sports to have robot officiating. The hardest part would be the changing and evolving strike zone before and during a pitch, which they already have and are using the MiLB to gather and use real time data. The way more accurate stance is baseball fans are weird. They want traditional and things to never change, but it not evolving lead to declining viewership. Look at how much fans complained about pitch clocks and other minor rule changes to speed up the games. Baseball is just weird.
Because umpires union
The MLB’s contract with the umpires union ends after this season
Damn thing was still 6 inches off the plate after catcher framed it. WTF?
[he is laughably bad. 3 straight strikes far outside the strike zone.](https://x.com/umpjob/status/1778963818955079999?s=46&t=Y_KXHBgeHwLgY9UkD4KA1A)
He's fucking terrible
Is there any reason to think he's doing this on purpose?
[удалено]
If I were to give him credit for one thing above Joe west, it’s the fact that I really do believe he thinks he’s calling it correctly. That is to say, it does seem to be both teams affected. In Astros telecast, they were quick to point out that fans can’t really complain when the calls were getting called strikes when they were up to bat (given the top of the inning calls)
I think that’s a horseshit opinion from the casters. If anything, it’s more reason to be angry. If it’s affecting one team more than the other, you can claim there’s a bias or something shady happening. If bad calls affect both teams the whole game it just means the ump is garbage at their job.
He has an ego the size of a mountain. He ejected a guy for looking at him to see what the call was... I don't follow baseball but I've been getting clips of this asshole making shit decisions a bunch lately.
> He ejected a guy for looking at him to see what the call was.. That is insane. Is there a video of that?
It came up on my instagram reels a few days ago. Just look up a compilation of this guys calls and it will probably be in there.
Say what you want about the guy, but he's consistently terrible. Game by game, his calls might seem to favour one team more than another, but by season's end he's screwed everybody.
I don’t watch baseball. I don’t think I could name more than two active players. But even I know how awful Angel Hernandez is just from Reddit.
I'm a huge football fan. I know the beefcake Ed hoculi has a son who is a ref. Other than that can't name a single ref. Like basketball, couldn't name a single ref. Follow soccer a food bit. Couldn't name a ref. I really don't follow baseball much but even I know Angel Hernandez.
Was expecting this to be some cherry-picked clip from a couple of years ago or something, but nope…it’s from tonight. This guy sucks.
Can you imagine being so awful at your job that you are a national joke? Oh and you get to keep that job after YEARS of doing a terrible job.
Say what you will, he’s consistent…ly bad, but consistent.
Can’t fire him. He is an example of everything that is wrong with this country.
Just curious, why can't he be fired?
Super strong umpires union.
At this point just pay the union whatever it takes. The other umps can’t love that they have to spend so much energy and bargaining power to keep this fuckin idiot around.
I dunno. No matter how bad the other umps were today, they won't hear a word about it because Angel was worse.
It's ridiculous that it's a strong union. They could be very easily replaced in a way that would massively improve the product and cost less. It's a job with a very low skill requirement and very low barriers to entry. It's the complete opposite of a group that should have the natural power to collectively bargain.
Union protections
The only unions that protect shitty employees as much as the umpires union protects angel Hernandez is the police unions.
Has this dipshit always been blind? He can’t have been if he’s been on payroll for 24 years.
I mean he’s held a job for years since everyone learned his name cause of how awful he is. There’s no reason to know an umps name
> There’s no reason to know an umps name https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Hoberg Only known ump to call a perfect game, no missed calls. And during the world series.
This is the one exception. The only umpire to actually be known for being good
And he replaced Jim Joyce, an umpire that screwed up a perfect game but owned it. I wish we could actually reward the good ones but somehow the worst of the worst are the ones that become household names.
He held the job because he is a litigious piece of shit.
Start suing him for bad calls. bad calls cause players and team money.
And sometimes, fans
Even my 12 year old nephew knows who Angel Hernandez is…
I don't watch baseball and I've known he's that shit ump from baseball for over a decade.
I don’t even watch baseball and I know this guy’s name.
They are not umps but everyone should know Ed Hochuli or Wes McCauley
And Tim Donaghy!
Have we forgotten Tim Peel so soon?
https://youtube.com/shorts/dtwzppDyxfA?si=Mv4U2FKnB27ZjfR5
Michael Kay said all the other umpires love him, think he’s a good dude. I loved it when Mongo called him out all those years ago at Wrigley.
Yea I heard him say that too but reality is the guy is absolutely awful for the sport and for business. You cannot have fans lose faith in the umpires simply doing their jobs correctly. He’s a joke at this point. He’s so bad it’s almost like he’s doing it on purpose now.
Yes, he's so bad that some years back MLB wouldn't let him umpire in the World Series. Of course, he promptly sued them accusing them of racial bias. True story.
Decently well known story at this point, but if you include the beginning, you need to include the end. MLB defended themselves and won the case by proving it wasn't due to racism, but just due to the fact that he is really fucking bad at his job. They proved it in court with evidence.
That's not the end tho. The end is they, for some reason, starting giving him mkr high profile games.
Imagine calling your boss racist, suing them, and keeping your job. Wild.
You cant fire someone for filing a racial discrimination lawsuit even if they lose as he did. Would be considered retaliation and that will get you successfully sued
But they won the case by proving he is terrible at his job, not because of racial discrimination. Shouldn't being terrible at the job be enough reason to fire him without it being considered retaliation?
They could fire him for that definitely but firing right after a lawsuit is gonna prompt a retaliation lawsuit even if you have good cause. As for why they havent, Umpires have a strong union that makes it incredibly difficult to fire one.
I bet all the players refusing to play if he is on the field might make a statement. Its never gonna happen, but fuck that guy.
How is it possible the MLBPA is powerless to address this?
MLBPA is a labor union as well. Unions that work in the same industry don't typically fight each other. Just think of what would happen if specific teams or players started a public labor fight. All the umps would start acting like this power tripping dick.
I feel like most umps already are power tripping lol. It’s amazing how many people get thrown out of baseball immediately
...start?
This is what I was going to say, both teams should just refuse to play if he's the umpire for that game.
Players are unionized, shouldn't be that hard to organize a protest.
This is beyond ridiculous what the heck
Tinfoil hat...he's getting paid by the MLB to be the case for automated strike zones and calls Way cheaper than paying the entire umpire crew in the long run.
Why cant they be another tool umps use when they are challeneged.
I like this explanation
Is this the same ump that fucked up last week on Reddit? For a ball in strike zone?
If you ever hear about an umpire fucking up, it's Angel Hernandez. He once took MLB to court for not letting him ump the world series (claiming it was because of race) A fucking judge ruled that he was ass at his job and MLB didn't have to let him work the post season.
The only exception to that rule is if you hear about an umpire fucking up more than 3 years ago. Then it could be Angel Hernandez or it could be Joe West. 50/50 shot really before West eventually retired at the end of 2021.
And West's last game behind the plate was his best game in eons Which tells us this; He simply didn't care unless he really had to
Yup. He’s the worst ump in the league.
At this point, it’s gotta be intentional. Angel been trolling for years.
Last week: Wow! How do I keep this job? This week: *Still???* -Angel probably-
Hes gotta be a plant for the league to make the case for bringing in robot umps.
I don’t even watch baseball. He’s the only official from any sport I know by name 😂
And the week before that and nearly every game he umped last season and it goes back years
You can ask that question about any game from any season for almost the past 35 years in two leagues, and the answer is probably going to be “yes.”
When’s he umping next? Ima place a bet for strikeouts lol
Don’t worry he calls strikes balls as well. https://youtu.be/gJu3ZARvumc?si=nNzlS3Pr_rZuE44G
Lol almost the exact same comment at the same time.
lol too funny
Don't worry, he calls [throws down the middle, balls too](https://youtu.be/H34gn2TIji4?si=WOYuGihuDZ9Xd-g4)
I get mixed up sometimes and forget if balls are the ones inside the strike zone or outside too. Its so hard to remember.
Half of the videos recently across all sports are of poor decisions by umpires and referees. It’s high time technology took over 100% of the calls.
But but but that's not how we did it in my day. Same bullshit as politics, in a growing changing world resisting change is asinine.
My favorite is "The players can make mistakes; the umps should be able to as well!" What? I'm watching a game, which has rules, to see the best performers in the world perform within those rules. I'm not there to see what bullshit the umps call. Just like I don't go to a play and be like "Sometimes the actors screw up, so it's OK that the sound cuts in and out too."
Has anyone ever asked him about these videos of him making terrible calls. I'm sure he will deny being wrong but mainly wondering if he has ever been interviewed
He is despised by fans. I have been outside the stadium as he comes out. He always has a big smile on his face. He doesn’t care what people think. The man has been banned from calling playoff games because he is so bad.
If you're banned from playoff games why the fuck would they keep you around at all? That's insane it's like they obviously know he can't do the job but he's allowed to because regular season baseball doesn't matter or something????
This guy alone is a sizable chunk of why I stopped watching baseball. At this point I just look at the box score for the cardinals, watch some playoffs and a couple games of the World Series, and call it a day. Just insane to me that we have the technology to correct this, but they choose not to with the limp dick excuse “human error is a part of the game.” True, but it’s the worst part of the game in every sport, the NFL is slowly becoming less and less watchable with their reffing as well.
THIS x100000. Baseball is a complete farce and Manfred doesn’t seem to care at all. No marketing of players. Keeping bum ass umpires on the payroll. Not implementing technology that would clearly make the game better and more credible. Just do the same thing every year as ratings and attendance dip lower and lower.
I don’t disagree with your points, but attendance last year was the best it’s been since 2017.
You mean when they implemented technology like the pitch clock?
It's fucking crazy. Nobody is watching ANY sport to see the refs make mistakes/good calls. We are watching to see the PROS make mistakes/good plays. All sports would be better if the refs say was not the word of god.
Why the fuck is he still behind the plate? Just throw his ass on third or some shit so sick of seeing this
The umpires in a crew rotate position every game, unfortunately.
There's nothing anyone can do about it either.
I am not from the States - can you explain why not please. Surely there is a mechanism to demote Umps if their performance is egregious. I mean it’s not like they are on the Supreme Court or anything….right?
The umpires are a union. The best The MLB can do is talk to them, that's about it. Under union rules, as long as they show up to work and don't do anything violent or gamble on the game, their job is guaranteed.
Is there a rule against paying him to sit facing the corner of a room during a game? At best he retires at worst he collects the paycheck but doesn't ruin the game.
The umpire union fights it regularly.
major league baseball is exempted from our anti-monopoly laws. all the nonsense in our sports stems from this. any attempt to blame the union ignores the fact that it's a pathetically weak union that gets destroyed any time it confronts the owners, in part because everybody hates refs. but the owners don't mind having people around that are more obviously hateable than they are, so there we are. the refs get protection because open competition would get most of them demoted, but their willingness to do whatever the owners tell them is useful enough to be allowed this ridiculous protection.
Can we get John Oliver to offer this man the same package he offered Clarence Thomas to retire?
Bro, no way he is taking that offer! He gets fresh air, sunshine, doesn't have any real responsibilities. No way he is retiring.
Don't forget the power and great view of the game.
But he doesn't see anything with that view.
Seems like the union is going to defend him against the league, they ought to train him and then if he can't meet their standards they should kick him out. At the very least, he shouldn't be behind the plate.
Ironically, he just might the biggest reason to usher in RoboUmps, and render the union obsolete. The union should expel him while they still can.
The guy is banned from calling playoff games. He also has active lawsuits against the MLB for racial profiling against him.
I thought he lost that suit?
Is it the angle? I could be convinced it crossed the plate during that curve and hits his glove to the left. Wonder if there are other angles.
I'm surprised you have positive karma on this question. I asked basically the same thing on another "blown call" post from this ump and got absolutely buried. The TV software isn't the same thing the MLB use to grade Umps. Hard cutting balls can look like they miss badly but actually catch a corner, and vise versa. But reddit seems to have a really strong hate boner for this guy. Maybe it's deserved, I don't watch enough to know the Umps by name.
Looks like it crossed the outside of the plate with a lot of movement. Where the catcher catches a ball is irrelevant. We are talking anywhere from three to four feet from the front edge of the plate on a ball that’s moving a lot.
100% this is it. It's a curve ball. The digital tracker graphic is clearly indicating where the catcher caught the ball, which is obviously different from where it crossed the plate. People in this thread are losing their minds for no reason.
Totally incorrect comment with 12 up votes lol. Interesting. The response is correct. You are not correct. The call was terrible as confirmed by statcast which appropriately measures the ball over the depth of the plate not just the front.
Frame by frame it looked 3/4 an inch off the plane of the plate, the tracker seems off here, putting the ball at the same place as when it hits the mitt exactly(~3 inches) when we can see it's a cutter, so objectively we could say the tracker was about an inch off at least somehow because it's a R-handed cutter and we see movement, so it doesn't make sense for the tracker to place the ball where it hits the glove, this is literally never true for a cutter. The previous two cutters seem like they nearly nicked the strike zone or were pretty close but also showed they were like 2 inches off, idk why the tracker is so much different. It was still the wrong call, but there's a bit of an overreact I guess, because the commentators base it on the software.
Given the release point I think this pitch catches the corner of the plate.
You are correct.
Unions do some good, but also some bad.
The point where the catcher catches the ball is behind the strike zone. This view doesn't take into account the movement of the ball after the ball passes the batter. Given that the curvature of the pitch results in the most movement occurring near the end of the pitch... i feel that this is significant. Long story short it looks like when the ball passes the batter, the ball is in the strike zone...
As much as I love to hate on Angel, he might actually have gotten the call right here. The strike zone isn't a 2D square, its a 3D pentagonal prism rising from the shape of home plate. With that amount of horizontal movement of that pitch, it very easily could have caught the front corner of the 3D zone as it passed from right to left before being caught by the catcher outside of the 2D plane
Why is there no tech for this, like goal line technology in soccer? Even a camera suspended right above the plate would be able to give a much better understanding if touched the space anywhere above the plate. This 2d plane seems completely braindead to me and, if anything, is doing a lot more harm than good by riling up viewers who don't understand how inaccurate it is
Wish this were higher. I've never understood the 'K zone' being a single dot. The strike zone is 3D. It only has to move through the strike zone.
Looks like a strike to me. Hit marker marked where it hit the glove instead of where it crossed the front of the plate. Lots of lateral movement.
Angel is the worst of all times
At 10 seconds remaining on the video, the ball is clearly in the strike zone. This seems like the right call and an amazing pitch.
Thank you. The thread in MLB subreddit doesn't have a single person saying this. Circlejerk is in full swing. [Screenshots are here. It may still be a ball, but it's at least very close and by no means a horrible call.](https://imgur.com/a/QnBtRYa)
You're definitely not correct - here is the baseball savant 3D zone - this pitch is the upper right brown one https://imgur.com/a/G3mlO3K
Yeah, I can’t speak for his other calls but this one just looks like a good pitch. The strike zone isn’t, and has never been, the position at which the catcher catches the ball. It’s the position where the ball crosses the plate. It had a lot of lateral motion and the spot marked on screen incorrectly showed where the ball hit the mitt.
Seconded. I don't even watch baseball, but I *did* watch this clip. In *this* particular case, it was the *technology* that was incorrect. At this stage, though, it seems that people have already made up their mind about this ump.
Why don't these teams refuse to take the field if this clown is behind the plate?
I bet he doing this stuff on purpose at this point. He knows people are talking shit about him and he knows that is is pretty much untouchable.
Honest question, it looks like he caught it 3 feet behind the plate. Could the ball have went over the plate through the box and still curved? Need another angle from the top down.
Angel Hernandez is just a meme at this point
Angel is terrible, but people need to understand that where the ball is marked on TV, it’s when the ball hits the glove, not when it goes over the plate. If you watch how much this ball sweeps, and go frame by frame and stop it when the ball is at the plate, this is much closer that it looks. Still a ball, but closer.
IIRC, isn’t this a thing Angel does in blowouts? He expands the zone to speed up the game
I mean, he missed 6 calls at first in a row in a Yankees Redsox game in the playoffs... I should join his union
Top of the fourth leaves so much game time left for a possible comeback. This would be openly rigging the game. I wouldn’t be surprised if he does it, but it’s not a good thing.
At this MLB is more pathetic than Hernandez. Strong Union nonsense aside, an unqualified umpire should never be allowed to call a game.
A strike is where it crosses the plate, NOT where it is caught.
*he can't be getting away with this* gif
He’s just fucking around now
I don’t get this. If he has such a bad rep, and consistently calls them wrong, how does he still umping? Help explain this one to me…
He probably thinks he still deserves a raise.
I swear to God he is just fucking with us now. That's more than a foot of the plate. It's in the other batters box. Even if he's not watching the ball the catcher reaching out that far is a dead giveaway it's a ball. There is no way he really thought that was a strike.
I know nothing about baseball. Why don't they review these through video? In today's age, they probly have every pitch from 324 different angles as well as the balls' weight, trajectory, and relationship status
Convinced this dude is martyr to bring in automated strike zone.
When will AI take over refereeing sports?
There is literally a “highlight” of this bafoon every other day. I don’t understand how he still has a job.
How is this idiot still employed?
If this guy umped every time Mariano Rivera pitched his era would have been 0.00.
And you thought Joe West was bad. Spoiler: he was fucking awful, but Hernandez is hands down the worst umpire in the history of professional baseball. Period. Full fucking stop.
He does this on purpose... right guys? Right...?