In the world of sports, the majority of sports have umpires or officials who keep the game fair and apply rules.
Recently in the baseball world, umpire Angel Hernández retired from the MLB. His retirement reached national headlines immediately as he is not known for making the best decisions behind the plate or in the field.
Hernández is arguably one of the worst umpires to every step on a major league field and not many fans nor players like him.
According to the Umpire Auditor, Hernández has missed 161 calls behind the plate in his career, and his umpire rating is 93% correct for strikes and balls called.
“Every game that Angel is umpiring, I don’t even watch. He has ruined the reputation for umpiring and umpires around the league,” Roan Reilley said.
Though there is a lot of controversy about his umpire capabilities, Hernández was still good enough to be placed in the MLB to umpire some of the best baseballs in the world, so at the end of the day, he still knew and had enough knowledge about the game to be considered a professional.
No one is perfect, and in the game of baseball, failure happens more often than success, so a perfect umpire will never exist, just like a perfect baseball player will never exist. So, to hate one person so much is unfair and unlogical.
Umpiring is supposed to make the game fair and playable, and umpires are required to apply rules and keep the game under control. AI has been suggested by many fans and players around the league that in the minor leagues, they have used computer technology to determine a strike zone and callouts.
“Umpires are what makes the game of baseball beautiful, though sometimes we wanna yell and scream at them for their calls; there are humans just like every other person alive,” Kage Weil said.
This has caused a lot of controversy around the league because what makes the game of baseball fun is the human nature of it. Players may not agree with every call, but that’s the point of the game. Close calls are what make the game fun and enjoyable, whether players or fans like it or not.
Hernández has made nothing but a bad reputation around the league. Not many teams nor managers like him as an umpire, and when he is behind the plate or in the field, teams and fans know that it will most likely be a rough game for both sides.
With so many players, coaches, and fans not in favor of Hernández, he has finally announced his retirement from the MLB after 34 seasons in the MLB. That is one of the longest umpire careers in recent history.
No umpire tries to throw a game, but sometimes sports fans that are on the receiving side of these bad calls seem to think that they are getting screwed over or that the umpire is trying to lose the game for them, but that is not the case, no umpire wakes up and wants to lose a game for a team, but at times things happen, and that is that.
Here is a video of best calls by Angel Hernández.