(670 The Score) Former MLB umpire Joe West vehemently defended much-maligned and just-retired umpire Angel Hernandez on Tuesday, a day after news broke that Hernandez was leaving the game for good.
“Whether you want to believe it or not, he was good at it,” West said on the Parkins & Spiegel Show.
West’s perspective is rooted in working with Hernandez for years and his understanding of how MLB umpires are graded. As West has pointed out to 670 The Score before , umpires aren’t graded on the electronic strike zone that fans see on television broadcasts.
Hernandez, 62, reached a settlement to leave MLB, according to ESPN and USA Today. Hernandez umpired his first MLB game in 1991. He cited a desire to spend more time with his family for retiring.
“I know the lawyer that handled his case and I know that when they went through everything that he was graded on, he was in the top 20% (of umpires),” West said of Hernandez.
That comment from West was a reference to Hernandez’s lawsuit against MLB alleging racial discrimination, which he filed in 2017. Despite that case losing, it was pivotal because it paved the way for minority umpires to get better opportunities, West said. In the lawsuit, Hernandez alleged racial discrimination, citing the fact that he was passed over for a full-time crew chief role and that he hadn’t worked the World Series since 2005.
At the time the lawsuit was filed, one minority umpire held the distinction of being a crew chief, West said. Since then, six minority umpires have risen to that role, West said.
“His legacy is to help people,” West said of Hernandez.
West also took a moment to vent about those who criticized Hernandez’s missed calls and lowlights on social media.
“I hate the fact that these people that sit behind a desk and get behind a computer and send out all these social media things, they don’t know what they’re talking about,” West said.
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