Awful Ump Angel Hernandez Retired & There Was Much Rejoicing Throughout MLB | The Rich Eisen Show 

Heard his retirement papers aren't official yet, he signed them, but his signature is about 6 and a half inches outside of the "Sign Here" box

I was born in Sep. 1991, I am 32 years old now. I have not know a world without Angel Hernandez officiating in the league. I am leaving a better world for my children.

It's not just incompetence, but arrogant incompetence.

He’s not gone. He lives in our hearts. Like heart disease.

My son's birth, my wedding day, the Cubs winning the World Series. Top 3 moments of my life so far. Angel Hernandez retiring is probably number 4.

The fact that ESPN had breaking news that an ump retires should tell you something

Him announcing his retirement is the best call of his life.😂

If any player, manager, or coach was as bad as their job as Hernandez they would have been fired years ago. MLB and the Umpires Union both failed in their primary responsibility that being to protect the integrity of the game.

I'll say one good thing about Angel Hernandez: He was so bad at his job you could never suspect he was on the take.

Hernandez made Frank Drebin look like a world-class umpire

This is one of the best things to happen to baseball since the retractable roof

Rich should do a top 10 all time worst Angel Hernandez calls.

When you type "Angel Hernandez.." into RU-vid, it autofills "..worst calls."

Angel Hernandez has almost single-handedly pushed the league towards robo-umps.

As a Red Sox fan, I would like to say thank you for finally retiring... The worst ump MLB has ever seen!

This guy made me want all the umpires replaced for protecting him. It is the time for the Robots to take over. Get rid of all of them.

If I didn’t see the title, I would still know exactly who Rich was talking about before saying the name. That’s how bad Angel was

Amazingly, Angel was worse than Joe West. An astounding accomplishment that will not be matched in our lifetime

MLB needs to actively scout and recruit umps. We need more Pat Hoberg's. 98% accuracy against marked zone. 2022 Pat was 100% in the WS.

The most disgusting thing about about him was playing the race card rather than coming to grips with his own incompetence. And his career is the perfect example of why I take issues with unions. Yes, they protect vulnerable people, but they also enable incompetent ones.

His legacy is that he will singlehandedly be the driving force for electronic umpiring in the near future.

Funny moment from tonight's Cubs-Brewers game, courtesy of Marquee Network: Jim DeShais: "Angel Hernandez retired. I am not sure why I mentioned that." Boog Sciambi: "Maybe because that last strike was outside the zone."😆

With the rise of sports betting, the MLB had to get rid of him.

MLB should be applauded, they hired a blind umpire

Major League Baseball will be a better game without Angel Hernandez

He literally reminds me of Leslie Nielson from Naked Gun as the ump. Just calling it a strike in order to get attention.

I’m sure Harper is celebrating as we speak

There isn’t a single baseball fan upset about this whatsoever.

You should do a Angel Hernandez top ten hits

Once retired, can he speak publicly. I'd like to know how long he's been blind.

Angel's Little Bighorn moment. Like Custer, he put the uniform on one too many times. I breathe a sigh of relief for Baseball. All we can say now is "Play Ball". Great show Rich.

At work I joke about the vacation test. When you go on vacation do your co-workers notice your absence and look forward to your return? If so, you're a valuable employee. If they don't notice, that's not good, and it's even worse if they notice how much better things are without you. I think I can add the "end of employment" test. If you retire or are let go, how do people react? You want them to think "You're leaving? How will we make do without you?" Angel has failed the test in the worst way possible. He's retiring and everyone is taking the time out of their busy day to crap all over him on the way out. The only way this would have been worse is if he had died first and we all crapped on him then.

He’s not even a bottom ranked ump he just knows the exact right time to make it about him.

There is nothing that saddens me more that my godfather passed too soon to witness this day. I genuinely hope his family understands he has earned every bit of disdain the baseball community harbors for him. Absolute bum.

This would’ve happened earlier if the umpire union weren’t protecting him

Angel was the first Cuban-American umpire in MLB, and one of the first Latinos of any sort in the job. His hiring was promoted as a big step for MLB diversifying the umpiring ranks. CB Bucknor was hired around the same time, with similar reasoning, as one of few African-American umpires. It's a damn shame the both of them turned out to be poor performing umps with bad on-field attitudes. Fortunately, there have been many other minority umps hired by MLB since then, and most of them are pretty good at the job. Angel *was* a trailblazer, but not in a good way.

Giants fan here. Back in ‘93, a SF batter hits a routine sac fly ball to left field late in the game. Ball is caught, runner tags from 3rd, and scores go ahead run. LA appeals and Angel Hernandez calls runner out when replay clearly shows the runner leaving after ball was caught. Rookie manager Dusty Baker argues and gets thrown out. Dodgers ended up winning that game in extras and I NEVER forgave Hernandez after that. To see that he’s lasted this long as an MLB umpire with consistent incompetence is so beyond me.

When he called Angel a barnacle, i lost it. 😂😂😂😂😂

Much like Angel, didn't see that coming.

He retired along time ago while still being an umpire. MLB let him continue

I’ve been waiting all day to see what rich had to say about this!

The inevitable 30 for 30 about Angel is gonna be FASCINATING.

Eagerly awaiting the Jomboy supercut of "Angel Hernandez's Worst Calls"

Reports are that Angel Hernandez's retirement came out from a meeting with top MLB officials. Officials were questioning Hernandez's ability to see and comprehend correctly. Angel got so worked up that he stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind himself. It took Angel 10 minutes to realize he was in the closet. His announcement of retirement came soon after.

The giant eye test had me rolling

Just imagine being horrible at your job for 30 years, embarrassing MLB.

Three umpires have indelibly left their marks on my baseball psyche. The fact I know their names should reveal the trauma they inflicted upon me throughout their careers. Eric Gregg (God rest his soul) was a man with as elastic a strike zone as Reed Richards from the Fantastic Four. For as unreliable as he was, though, he wasn't an a-hole. "Country Joe" West, however, was an a-hole. A _huge_ one. Actually, he wasn't an a-hole; he was the whole A. His final day in the MLB reminds me of the day I got my divorce judgment in the mail from the California Family Court. I thought to myself, "It's finally over. I survived it. I never have to go through that again." Cue my ex-fiancée and Angel Hernandez. Simply calling them "worse" leaves so much unsaid. These two individuals did what I thought was impossible: They both made me look back at my ex-wife and Country Joe and say--out loud--"You know something? They weren't that bad." The ex-fiancee has been gone for 13 years this month; Angel is now a traumatic memory. To the both of them, "Good riddance to bad rubbish." I am finally free.

Went to a game recently in Tampa, and was disappointed that AH wasn't on the crew. We wanted to start an "Angel sucks" chant sooo bad!

Angel did not kick out mongo, it was the 1st base umpire that did :P

I still don't understand why MLB would not have a system in place to remove umpires who perform below certain standards.

The only bad part of this news is that my dream of Hernandez getting absolutely trucked by some disgruntled player about to retire.

Laz Diaz & CB Buckner-- "Hold my beer!"

Baseball Doesn't Exist actually did an episode on Angel and the actual tracking of his ump stats found him ranked above at least 1/3rd of the other umpires in the NL. In other words, while he wasn't the best, he was definitely not the worst either. He just managed to be the one guy that caught attention and people loved to pile on. That said, he deserves a happy, quiet retirement.

The question that should be being asked now is, how did he and West and those like them, ever get into such an exclusive club as major league umpires? It should be the creme de la creme. There is no way that there could not have been hundreds of better candidates any one of which should have been there instead.

Angel Hernandez is probably a majority stockholder in the ABS company MLB uses, calling terrible games to speed up acceptance.

Yankees are looking great, John Sterling retired, now Angel retires. This is shaping up to be one of best seasons ever and it’s only 1/3 of the way through!

Been waiting for this since reading this news around 2am EDT.

Wow, Rich...don't hold back, man. Tell us how you REALLY feel! Seriously, you said what we've all been shouting at the TV for ages.

After attending my local mlb baseball team earlier this year, the organization, through mlb, emailed me a questionnaire. When they asked: "What would enhance your experience as an mlb fan", my response was; "Get rid of Angel Hernandez". Who says dreams don't come true?

MLB: Yo, hernandez Angel: yes MLB: retire or you're fired Angel: it was a good run eh MLB: why are you still here?

Angel Hernandez was told to retire. This was a termination

One of my favorite things to do is to sit back and watch a game on TV, but over the last 10-12 years I would just change the channel whenever Ángel Hernández was behind the plate. I can handle the occasional missed call from an umpire, but the constant string of missed calls was just so frustrating to watch. I am glad that he’s no longer umpiring in MLB.

This might be the best call that Angel Hernandez has ever made in his life. He was terrible at his job, he always made every game he called behind home plate The Angel Hernandez Show, and whenever he screwed up a call which was so often that it made you feel that he did it on purpose just so he could eject someone for complaining. He never took accountability or blame for any of it he was a clown and unquestionably the worst umpire that I have ever seen and I am overjoyed that he has retired.

Glad to see Rich's fav ump go out on a high note 😂😂

Joe Brinkman was another umpire who couldn't retire too soon. Unfortunately, the entire country witnessed the enormousness of his ineptitude during the 1995 Word Series.

LMAOOOOO "FREE LASIK!!" I literally laughed out loud in public

I've been waiting for this video! Knew it was coming!

I think it was mainly the lack of consistency that drove the players nuts at home plate and then all the terrible calls at 1st and 3rd base. There are actually worse umpires in MLB almost every year in terms of accuracy of calls, however those umpires tend to be consistently wrong on their strike zones which is better because everyone can adjust. Angel's strike zone was unbelievably inconsistent from pitch to pitch.

Best line I heard was when The Hawk was still doing games and Angel was making a call and fed up Hawk jut says "flip a coin Angel flip a coin!".

MLB was probably like “look Angel, either we fire you or you ‘retire’. You want your pension?”

The fact he kept a job is a testament to the strength of the unions and the strongest case to dissolve them!

The fact that I, a non baseball fan know his name (literally the only umpire name ive ever known) speaks volumes to his ineptitude

To quote America’s highly-respected poet laureate Nene Leakes: “Girl bye.”

Lol, people across sports are celebrating this. I was surprised to find a post on the Bears Subreddit. CB Bucknor should be next!!!

HERNANDEZ FINALLY MAKES A GOOD CALL

I think it’s worth pointing out that this is likely one the most successful grassroots movement in recent sports history. People like Rich, Umpire Auditor, Jomboy, and others created a ton of pressure on this situation that wasn’t ignorable due to social media pressure. It can’t be proven, but there is a fair amount of circumstantial evidence that Angel was forced to retire behind closed doors to protect the future of other human umpires. A lot of people drew a ton of attention to a subject that is typically buried by the leagues and network media to protect the product. It’s not the most important thing going on in the world right now, but it’s good to see accountability on something that was running baseball for a lot of people.

Correction Rich Eisen crew, Angel did not kick out Steve McMicheal, another ump did.

Angel was NOT the umpire that made the ejection of Mongo. The crew chief did

Fox called him polarizing. Considering every single mlb fan base hated him then I’m trying to figure out who actually liked him to make him polarizing?

Angel's nephew was my neighbor for 7 years and he said that he didn't like several players that's why we would make those calls. He started writing his memoirs about his umpire experience.

It is good that Angel Hernandez is going. There are 20 more incompetent a-hole umpires that need to go with him

Angel didnt throw out the Take Me Out To The Ballgame guy, the first base umpire did. Source: watch the Baseball Doesn't Exist episode on Angel Hernandez.

The best thing about the Schwarber incident is that it wasn't just about his at bat. Schwarber was speaking for everyone, including sticking up for the other team. He points at both dugouts and makes that arm moting that to me said EVERYONE is fed up with your bullshit.

Rich, you're by far one of the best sports commentators around. I love how you put it out there and say what needs to be said. You're the man! Go Blue!

I'm a firm believer in the words of Teddy Roosevelt, and the Man in the Arena. That those who have never done the job and never will but refuse to be positive or empathetic at any juncture don't contribute anything other than animosity and promote harsh feelings. I believe in all of that, and I myself have never been and never will be an MLB umpire. It's undoubtedly an incredibly difficult job, and one where people are, essentially, demanding perfection and you have to make tough calls that you will never receive full approval of. I get all of that... But I think Rich hit the nail on the head that you have to have some form of humility when you are widely considered one of the worst in the sport, and instead at times making things "all about him". I no doubt think Angel likely didn't find much enjoyment in his job given that he has basically been vilified, unless he found enjoyment in shoving things in people's face because he could. But despite all that, the job does require a level of professionalism that is above what is typically required from a usual job. It's just part of the territory, right or wrong, and I don't think he lived up to that, in my personal opinion. While I wish him all the best, I think the game, and the jobs of umpires across the league, will benefit from his departure. This news was a surprise to me... But maybe this is a result of the "accountability" people have been calling for. Personally, I hope for his sake this is his decision and his alone... But hey, now we can move on, and hopefully the game is better for it.

I feel terrible for Angel. All this vitriol, all this condemnation for a guy who was just doing his job. How do you think Angel will feel when he sees all of this? Oh, who am I kidding, Angel couldn't see this if it was on a billboard outside his living room window. My only regret of this day is that Buchnor, Diaz, Wendlestadt, and Eddings didn't join him.

I'm generally not in favor of overscrutinizing umps, ie having the strike zone box on the TV, but angel and joe were jeez 😅

Hernandez was the worst thing in the MLB. This is decades too late. Rich, this will go down as one of my favorite segments of yours.

This is why people have problems with unions. They protect members, not because it's right, but because they are paying members. Don't give a damn about quality of the product, just the negotiating power of the union.

Why are you not having a party? It's a happy day for all of baseball. My son is a major league pitcher, and is ecstatic not having Hernandez decide his fate on the mound ever again.🤣

Angel has been R.O.A.D. for about 30 years now. Retired On Active Duty R.O.A.D.

This type of “quietly” retiring on short notice, without finishing out the season, giving a short “I’m retiring to spend more time with my family” announcement, sets off all kinds of alarm bells. Two scenarios are running through my mind and both can impact MLB as some of the blown calls directly affected the outcome of many games causing teams play-off losses resulting in losing the pennant or even going to the World Series. Scenario #1 - Hernandez was suffering from an illness that impaired his judgment and he was able to keep hidden for many years, until recently when the condition worsened and he couldn’t conceal his condition anymore because the bad calls were so frequent and obvious. Scenario #2 - He intentionally made these bad calls for one of two reasons, he held a grudge against certain players/teams or he was involved in a “Playoff Payoff” and making sports book bets that he could influence the game outcome. Anything and everything is open to betting in the world of sports betting… of course I have a suspicion mind, and can conjure up unsupported theories… however, his sudden retirement does make you want to go…. Hmm 🤔!

Believe it or not Angel Hernandez statistically speaking isnt even close to one of the worst ups. Scary to find that out but out of millions of balls he actually ranks in the upper echelon his entire career. Even after the strike when mlb canned 30+ umps they kept him. The reason he is looked at as so bad is because he had some things draw a ton of attention to him and so every single call he made became scrutinized and gone over with a fine tooth comb and the lawsuit only amplified things for him. But if you watch a video done by the show on RU-vid called " Baseball Doesn't Exist" he does a half hour going through his entire career and its kind of shocking how above average he is. "The Most Hated Umpire Isn't Actually Bad" is the name of the video. There are some way worse out there but they some how dont draw enough attention onto themselves

3:56 actually Angel did not kick him out, the first base umpire did!

For Joe West to come out and say Angel was a good ump is the most hilarious thing ever

I have to make a correction on Hernandez throwing out Steve McMichael. It was actually another ump that threw out Steven not Hernandez. Angel didn't throw him out of the game. Umps are known to protect their own in situations like that.

Rich, you politely understated how bad it was. Nice of you.

The bobblehead idea is next level genius!!

I've been watching quite a few videos concerning Angel's retirement. The raw numbers show he was not the worst in the league from a stat angle. His problem was his ego, his refusal to allow that he made a mistake, and his refusal to do anything to get better. I worked right around 3,000 games as an amateur sports official in 4 sports. I always had good judgement as it relates to ball\strike or safe\out. What I also had was a big ego and a God complex. What I said was the law. I once ejected 3 players in less than 30 seconds which resulted in a forfeit because they did not have enough players left to field a team. I never kept a tally, but I probably ejected at least a hundred coaches or players in my first 1,000 games. In my last 1,000 games I ejected a handful of people and nearly all of them were for rules violations that forced me to toss them. It took me that middle third of games to learn that my ego had no place on the field and that the game was not about me. In 33 years Angel never learned that lesson.

Very good Rich