Tag: Angel Hernandez

In honor of MLB umpire Angel Hernandez’s retirement, what’s the worst call in Wisconsin history?

What’s the worst call in Wisconsin history?

Major League Baseball umpire Angel Hernandez announced his retirement on Sunday night.

The news came as a surprise, though it was much-anticipated by baseball fans. Hernandez had gained a reputation as one of the sport’s worst umpires and became one of the most disliked figures by nearly every fanbase.

Related: Which Big Ten football team has the toughest 2024 schedule?

Hernandez’s retirement had many on X re-posting the worst calls of his career. There is no Wisconsin angle to that discussion, so we’re turning to an age-old question: what are the worst officiating calls in Wisconsin sports history?

There are two obvious ones that will lead everybody’s list: Duke forward Justice Winslow touching the basketball in the 2015 national championship game, and Wisconsin wide receiver Danny Davis being called for a phantom offensive pass interference to decide the 2020 Rose Bowl vs. Oregon.

Both are hard to argue with.

Winslow’s clear touching of the basketball was missed by officials and sealed Duke’s win over Wisconsin in the sport’s biggest game. A reversed call would not have guaranteed a Badgers victory, but it would’ve gave them a chance.

The OPI call on Davis, meanwhile, ruined Wisconsin’s game-winning drive at the end of the Rose Bowl. It isn’t the national championship, but its the biggest game Wisconsin football has played in over the last 20 years.

I’m convinced that final drive results in game-winning points without that penalty.

There are likely countless others to consider, but none were worst calls on a bigger stage than these two mentioned.

 

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CC Sabathia posted 1 trolling GIF to celebrate Angel Hernandez retiring

CC Sabathia seems happy Angel Hernandez is retiring.

The year was 2018. The New York Yankees were in the playoffs against the Boston Red Sox. Angel Hernandez had a rough game as an umpire, with multiple plays overturned.

Afterwards, Yankees starter CC Sabathia went off on Hernandez, calling the umpire “absolutely terrible” and adding, “it’s amazing how he’s getting jobs umpiring in these playoff games.”

Fastforward to 2024. Hernandez is now a retired umpire, leaving behind a legacy of bad calls, and baseball fans everywhere are celebrating. Turns out … so is Sabathia, or so it seems.

Here’s what Sabathia posted on X (formerly Twitter) after the news dropped on Tuesday night:

And that famous moment in 2018:

Here it is, the final bad Angel Hernandez call in the umpire’s much-criticized career

The last bad call of Angel Hernandez’s career as the umpire retires.

If you’re looking for the final horrible call of Angel Hernandez’s career (we listed nine bad calls to remember!), we think this is the one, at least according to eagle-eyed MLB fans who have spent an inordinate amount of time calling the retiring umpire out.

Back on April 5, Hernandez was umpiring the Detroit Tigers and New York Mets game in extra innings. Spencer Torkelson was at the plate and checked his swing. And that looked like the case upon replay. Like, very much so.

But nope! Per Hernandez, it was a swing and a strike.

So there you have it — the last one to enjoy:

 

9 horrible Angel Hernandez calls to remember as the embattled umpire retires

A look back at some bad Angel Hernandez calls

After decades calling games and irking everyone from baseball players to announcers to fans, umpire Angel Hernandez is calling it quits.

That led to seamheads everywhere sharing their favorite bad calls from the ump who everyone loved to hate, and now that he’s retiring, the spotlight will swing to other umpires and their calls that we’ll share because they’re so bad.

Before that happens, it’s a good time to look back at some of the absolutely terrible calls we’ve seen from Hernandez over the years that we’ve featured here on For The Win. Here’s a sampling of 10 rough moments:

This call got Phil Nevin so mad.

It was 3.35 inches off the plate!

He wasn’t the first player to lose his cool with Hernandez.

This one got a lot of attention.

He wasn’t just bad behind the plate!

Not great for Hernandez!

Just weird all around.

These pitches were not strikes.

This is from earlier in the week.

Angel Hernandez’s reported retirement had happy MLB fans sharing the umpire’s worst calls

The umpire everyone loves to hate is reportedly retiring.

After years and years and YEARS of MLB fans calling for the league to get rid of much-criticized umpire Angel Hernandez, the man who’s been the focus of so much ire is done with baseball.

Per USA TODAY Sports’ Bob Nightengale: “Ángel Hernández, the polarizing veteran umpire who has drawn the wrath and exasperation from players, managers and fans alike over three decades, is retiring Tuesday from Major League Baseball, a high-ranking baseball official told USA TODAY Sports. … MLB and Hernández had spent the past two weeks negotiating a financial settlement before reaching a resolution over the weekend.”

Hernandez made horrible call after horrible call in his tenure, with ejections of all sorts infuriating everyone all over the game, and while there have been other cases of umpires who have drawn ire, it had gotten to the point with Hernandez where he was the poster child of bad refereeing in sports.

Fans had a lot to share on X (formerly Twitter):

 

 

 

 

 

Angel Hernandez bizarrely ejected Lance Lynn twice (!) … in a spring training game

Angel Hernandez is already in midseason form after this bizarre spring training ejection.

I have to say it: I’ve never seen this before, and of course it would involve Angel Hernandez, the much-criticized umpire who has missed strike calls and botched all sorts of calls over his career.

Here’s what happened on Friday: Lance Lynn was making his first start in spring training for the St. Louis Cardinals, when the veteran hurler was ejected in the third inning. Per reporter John Denton, Lynn said the two exchanged words over a questionable call and when Lynn pointed out the next pitch was a strike, he got tossed. Again: it’s spring training!

But it got weirder from there. Lynn needed to get some more work in, so he headed to the bullpen. But Hernandez didn’t apparently like that and had Lynn stopped and removed from the bullpen!

There’s video, too:

So weird!

MLB fans were so unsurprised to hear that Angel Hernandez was 2023’s worst umpire

Imagine being this bad at a job and keeping that job …

Baseball’s regular season came to an end on Sunday, and when the league announced the umpiring assignments on Monday for the wild-card matchups, fans easily noticed a missing name among the 24 umpires.

Angel Hernandez did not receive a postseason assignment yet again, likely bringing an end to a shortened year of work for the embattled umpire. Hernandez worked one game at first base to start the season and then missed time up until August with a back injury.

When Hernandez made his return to work behind the plate, he managed to become baseball’s worst statistical umpire in just 10 games. Literally.

According to Umpire Auditor, no big-league umpire who worked a minimum of 10 games performed worse behind the plate in the 2023 season. Umpire Scorecard measured a similar result with Hernandez ranking last among umpires in ball-strike accuracy at 92 percent overall with a minimum 10 games.

And that doesn’t even take into account his rough moments at base assignments this season. The two months couldn’t have gone much worse for Hernandez, and fans were totally unsurprised to see him rank dead last.

Video shows the NSFW stuff Bryce Harper appeared to yell at Angel Hernandez after horrible call

Harper had a lot of NSFW stuff to say to the umpire known for bad calls.

Angel Hernandez made another terrible call, this time on a check swing that wasn’t, in fact, a real swing from Bryce Harper on Thursday night.

The Philadelphia Phillies start was irate, and rightfully so, going at Hernandez at third base after the call and getting ejected in the process, before he tossed his helmet to the crowd.

But let’s get back to what he yelled at Hernandez. Jomboy put together one of those lip-reading videos that we all love to dig into, showing all the NSFW stuff Harper had to say to the embattled umpire.

So, here you go (WARNING: LOTS AND LOTS OF NSFW LANGUAGE AHEAD):

Bryce Harper went off on Angel Hernandez and was ejected after being totally correct

Bryce Harper was totally in the right here!

Another week, another Angel Hernandez special and Bryce Harper wasn’t having it.

On Thursday, the Philadelphia Phillies were hosting the Pittsburgh Pirates as the 2023 MLB regular season enters its final days. The Phillies recently clinched the first wild card spot in the National League, with the team looking to get back to the World Series off of bats like Harper’s.

In the bottom of the third, with one out and no one on, Harper was faced with a full count. Harper made a check swing on a ball low and away and was called out on strikes after the home plate umpire checked with Hernandez at third. Harper was absolutely livid after the call, as he went off on Hernandez and earned himself an ejection in the process, throwing his batting helmet to the Phillies crowd on his way out.

That’s definitely not a swing. Let’s see it from the other angle, shall we?

Not even close! We’ve seen a lot of Hernandez gems either in the field or behind home plate this season, but this one is especially egregious.

Here’s how MLB fans reacted after Harper was ejected for being totally right on this terrible Hernandez call.

Angel Hernandez just had one of the worst-rated games of any umpire in the past 5 years

Not great.

https://twitter.com/CodifyBaseball/status/1702709554205860270The Angel Hernandez we all know and love (to rip on social media) is back.

The Major League Baseball umpire who missed a lot of the 2023 season before returning didn’t have a bad game behind the plate back in August began reverting back to his usual self before he delivered an all-timer of a bad game, according to the folks at Umpire Scorecards, who rate umps every day.

Hernandez was behind the plate for the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 2-0 win over the Washington Nationals on Thursday, and he missed a whole mess of calls — 16, per Umpire Auditor — getting just 82.6 percent correct.

Remind me again: When are the robot umps moving in?

Woof.