Ángel Hernández first became a National League umpire in 1991, so he’s quite literally been doing this longer than Bryce Harper has been alive. And for a large chunk of that, Hernández has had the reputation as being the worst umpire in baseball — which he more than lived up to in Tuesday night’s Philadelphia Phillies loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Hernández delivered a relatively forgettable performance as the home plate umpire Wednesday, but found a way to make his impact on the game a night later as the third base umpire.
On a half swing that manager Rob Thomson admitted after the game he was surprised there was even an appeal on, Harper was rung up by Hernández. Whatever your definition of a check swing is, Harper clearly didn’t swing. But Hernández said he did, and that set Harper, who thought he had just worked a walk, off. Hernández promptly ejected him.
After the game, Harper didn’t mince words.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s just bad,” Harper said Thursday night. “Just all around, you’re grinding in that at-bat … facing a guy that I’ve never faced before and I get to a 3-2 count, take a slider down and in … obviously didn’t go and wasn’t even thinking about it in that situation. I was taking my stuff off and I heard the crowd’s reaction and I was just like ‘There’s no way.'”
Last April, Hernández turned in a disastrous performance behind home plate in a 1-0 Phillies loss to the Milwaukee Brewers. The game culminated in the typically even-keeled Kyle Schwarber going on a tirade after a missed strike three call.
Umpire Angel Hernandez was the lowest rated umpire on the day, missing 19 calls for a correct percentage of 85.3%.
— Umpire Auditor (@UmpireAuditor) April 25, 2022
He rang up 6 batters on pitches that were outside the zone and called a strike to Jean Segura that missed inside by a season high 6.47 inches.#Brewers #Phillies pic.twitter.com/pmmt1ELJJ6
Schwarber was ejected, just like Harper was this evening. But while Hernández hasn’t been made a crew chief or been selected to call a World Series since 2005 — which was the subject of a racial discrimination suit he unsuccessfully brought against the league — there don’t seem to be any consequences on a day-to-day basis for such bad performances.
“[It’s just] Angel in the middle of something again,” Harper continued. “Every year, it’s the same story, same thing. I’m probably gonna get a letter from [MLB senior vice president of on-field operations] Michael Hill and I’m gonna get fined for being right, again. So it’s just, it’s the same thing over and over and over again. It’s just not right.”
While Harper did make a young fan’s night by tossing his throwback helmet into the crowd after his ejection and later signing it, he stressed after the game how frustrated he was to be removed — both because you only get to play for so long and he knows that there were fans in attendance Thursday who probably won’t be able to afford tickets to postseason games at Citizens Bank Park.
There is a certain amount of professionalism expected at the Major League level, even when things don’t go your way. But that doesn’t seem to be a two-way street, as players seem to receive stiffer penalties for their reactions to bad calls than umpires get for actually making said rulings.
“Every time I get thrown out, it’s over and over,” Harper said. “You do something on the field and it’s like ‘Oh, you did it wrong.’ Or you take a pitch over the plate and it’s a ball [that gets called a strike] and I get thrown out, it’s my fault.
“I understand that you have to live up to a big league mentality,” Harper added. “But at the same time, it’s just when there’s a call that bad or something happens, I think it’s wrong for both sides, right? Hitting, pitching, anything. There’s times where it’s warranted, and there’s times where it’s not.”
Harper stopped short of making any sort of physical contact with Hernández, which should keep him from receiving a penalty from the league any stiffer than being fined, a reality he already seems resigned to.
But once Harper got out to Hernández at third base, did the much-maligned umpire have anything to say for his call?
“He just told me if I saw the replay, that I would know that I was wrong,” Harper said.
So did Harper see the replay?
“I didn’t need to see the replay.”
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