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If you’ve been watching baseball this season then you know one thing is very, and sadly, true – the umpires have been pretty dreadful. Like, really dreadful.
The latest frustrating moment came Wednesday night in Kansas City when Angel Hernandez, who just should never be allowed behind the plate, had a doozy of an inning that saw two ejections for the Royals and three runs for the Indians, who won the game 5-4.
The fact that everybody knows Angel Hernandez’s name is a problem to begin with. Nobody knows the names of the good umps, only the bad, and Angel Hernandez is definitely bad.
Last night in Kansas City he ruled that Jose Ramirez was hit by a pitch when replays made it look like he wasn’t hit by the ball but then the call somehow stood after an official review. Hernandez later correctly called a balk on the Royals, but the inning got away from them partly because of Hernandez.
Oh, and this came just a day after Hernandez admitted he basically guessed on a call after losing a ball in the lights.
Oh, and this also came after fans roasted him for more bad calls in a game last week.
Ugh.
Hernandez hasn’t been alone in the “bad ump” category this season. Far from it. Last week a fella by the name of Marty Foster made one of the most baffling calls I’ve ever seen when he ruled that Brewers pitcher Zack Godley impeded the path of Marlins second baseman Isan Diaz and gave Diaz first base. Foster was rightly crushed for it.
Things have been so bad for the umps this year that Phillies manager Joe Girardi tried to eject one from a game last week. That didn’t work, though, as Girardi was the one who got tossed.
Speaking of the Phillies, they won a Sunday night game earlier this season on an all-timer of a bad call that had Braves players and fans losing their minds.
Being an ump has to be a tough job but that doesn’t mean so many should stink at it. We’re just over a month into the season and so far things have been really, really bad. Just look at this double play call from last week.
If you search “MLB umps” on Twitter right now you’ll see a ton of examples of bad moments and a lot of fans blasting the umps for being so terrible this year. That is not good for baseball. At all.
So how does MLB fix this? The first thing I’d do would be to not allow Angel Hernandez to be a home plate umpire for the rest of the year. He’s proven that he’s just not good at that and his general incompetence can be a stain on whatever game he is calling.
But the rest of this isn’t not easy – it’s hard to suddenly make people who are bad at their jobs good at their jobs. This problem, however, needs a fixing and it needs to have happened like three weeks ago.
If this keeps going it’s going to be really embarrassing for MLB and even more frustrating for fans.
Be better, umps.
Quick hits: Captials-Rangers chaos… Lame rule prevents perfect game… Landing spots for Aaron Rodgers… And more.
– The Capitals-Rangers game started last night with a brawl just a second into the game and was a total mess. TJ Oshie’s emotional hat trick, however, should be the story from the game.
– Orioles pitcher John Means threw a no-hitter yesterday in Seattle but it could have been a perfect game if not for a lame rule.
– My pal Charles Curtis ranked all 32 NFL teams as possible landing spots for Aaron Rodgers, who reportedly has a tremendous nickname for Packers GM Brian Gutekunst.
– Here’s a running list of NFL players who have changed numbers in the offseason.
– Henry McKenna ranks Marvel’s 12 candidates for the next big super villain.