Baseball Just Got a Million Times Better

[rpannier]

Umpire Ángel Hernández is retiring effective immediately
That guy was the worst umpire.
He will NOT be missed by 99% of people in, and who follow baseball

[RockRaven]

1. I barely follow baseball and even I know that name, as being a

notoriously bad ump.

[ms liberty]

2. OK, I've been busy, whaaa? How did this happen?

[rpannier]

12. MLB gave him money to retire

[Bristlecone]

3. Hadn't worked a game since May 9

Just a miserable umpire on every level and at every spot.

[Princess Turandot]

4. Way overdue, but good news. It sounds like MLB used $$ to push him into 'retirement'...

... Various articles note something like this:

Hernández and the league have reportedly been negotiating terms of his retirement over the past two weeks. (From Yahoo Sports)

I assume that umpires normally retire under the terms of existing contractual pension arrangements and don't require any negotiations.

He sued the league for discrimination awhile back claiming he was not chosen to work the World Series due to his Cuban ethnicity. The case was thrown out, and subsequent appeals failed as well. He last worked the WS in 2005.

[GP6971]

5. Good Riddance!!

[regnaD kciN]

6. He FINALLY made the right call...

[Journeyman]

9. Well played . . .

[True Dough]

7. He released a statement

Link to tweet

[rpannier]

13. friendships I made along the way...

Who?
Bookies? Baseball haters? People who suck so badly at their job, they need to see someone who is worse to feel better about themselves?

[True Dough]

14. You're forgetting

Mr. Magoo fans...

[Different Drummer]

16. One of which I am.

[usonian]

8. The current crop of home plate umpires is so bad ...

How bad?

MLB is advancing ABS ( automated balls and strikes) aka robo-ump, through the minors. Slooooooowy in to the majors.

Only people upset so far at the prospect are catchers who perform “sleight of glove” framing of pitches.

Angel’s not in the outfield, nor anywhere else in MLB.

Last seen steering a ship in Baltimore harbor.

[Traurigkeit]

10. Then sound and pressure at First Base. Safe ?

[usonian]

11. MLB is slooooow.

About the time that AI fades like pet rocks and Tamagotchis, MLB will adopt it to do “everything”

And it will hallucinate!

[Different Drummer]

17. There is an account on X that rates the accuracy or lack thereof...

of home plate umpire calls.

https://x.com/UmpScorecards

[Doc Sportello]

15. First Joe West and now Angel?

Perhaps the two worst umpires in MLB history now belong to the ages, diamond wise. Both making close to half a million a year when they retired. I talked to a AAA ump and he told me about the cushy lifestyle of major league umps and why they stay so long that younger, better ones can't crack the show. One aspect was their per diem. The nice hotels they stay at have breakfast buffets, there is buffet food at the stadium, so they might use their per diem for one meal a day, but maybe not. So they get 10s of thousands of cash they just keep adding to a mutual fund or retirement fund. And they can be terrible like West and Hernandez and keep on working.