Angel Hernandez still isn’t giving up in his legal fight against Major League Baseball, and a Red Sox-Yankees playoff game has now been dragged into said fight.
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Hernandez sued MLB for discrimination in 2017, arguing that race was a factor in him not umpiring a World Series game in over a decade and getting passed over for crew chief jobs. A U.S. district judge ruled in favor of MLB last year, but Hernandez is now fighting to have that decision overturned.
MLB submitted its latest reply brief on Wednesday and wrote that Hernandez was actually on track to umpire the 2018 World Series, but that they decided to reverse course after Hernandez had three calls overturned by review while he was umpiring first base during Game 3 of the Red Sox-Yankees American League Division Series that year.
“Hernandez did not capitalize on that opportunity and did not rise to the occasion,” MLB wrote, as reported by ESPN. “This was the first time since the advent of expanded instant replay in 2014 that an umpire had three calls overturned in a postseason game. Based on his performance during that Division Series playoff game, [Joe] Torre was not confident in Hernandez's ability to perform effectively on an even more intense stage, and for this reason did not select him for the World Series that season.”
Hernandez’s epically poor performance was ruthlessly mocked and criticized during and after that game, including by Pedro Martinez on the TBS postgame show.
“Oh, Angel is horrible. Don’t get me going on Angel now,” Martinez said. “Major League Baseball needs to do something about Angel. It doesn’t matter how many times he sues Major League Baseball. He’s as bad as there is.”
Fortunately for the Red Sox, Hernandez had no effect on the outcome of that game: The Red Sox won 16-1, with Brock Holt hitting for the cycle.
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