At what point does Angel Hernandez say, “Enough” and hang up his mask? Or at what point does MLB say, “Enough,” fight the umpires’ union and get Hernandez fired for being one of the worst umps in the majors?
Controversies on consecutive nights this week in Kansas City reinforced his bottom status. The first involved Hernandez’s “guess” Tuesday when he couldn’t tell whether a drive to the outfield was caught or dropped because, he said, he was blinded by the lighting on the Kauffman Stadium outfield walls.
Replay showed that he guessed wrong. Hernandez’s incorrect initial call from just beyond first base created chaos on the bases.
MORE: Phillies’ Girardi steamed over Jose Navas’ bad call
The other controversy cropped up Wednesday when Hernandez was calling balls and strikes. He ruled that Cleveland batter Jose Ramirez was hit by a pitch from KC starter Brady Singer in the sixth inning. Replay umpires let the call stand, but it looked as if the pitch hit the knob of Ramirez’s bat and ricocheted into the mitt of Salvador Perez for a third strike.
Hernandez called a balk on Singer three batters later; that set off the Royals’ dugout. Pitching coach Cal Eldred was ejected for arguing, followed by manager Mike Matheny. One batter after that, Singer cursed out Hernandez as he was being lifted for a reliever and was also ejected.
Cleveland scored three runs in the frame and added single runs in the eighth and ninth to win 5-4.
The hit batsman and the balk were flashpoints, but there’s a good chance the Royals were already fed up with Henandez’s strike zone, which is a regular object of ridicule on Twitter. He trends for being bad at his job.
And those reviewed calls were so aggravating that another overturned call Tuesday, when he got a play wrong at first base, could easily become forgotten.
The one semi-positive thing about the 59-year-old Hernandez’s work is that he’s “bad for both teams.” Actually, no, that just makes him bad.
Cleveland manager Terry Francona has seen the show go on for too many seasons.
“I just kind of told Angel, ‘Why’s it always happening when you’re here?'” Francona told reporters after the catch/no-catch review Tuesday.
And then something else happened Wednesday. Things will keep happening until Hernandez or MLB has finally had enough.