Appeals court shows skepticism of Angel Hernandez’s race discrimination lawsuit against MLB

A federal appeals court panel expressed skepticism over umpire Angel Hernandez’s attempt to reinstate his racial discrimination lawsuit against Major League Baseball.

Cuban-born Hernandez, who was hired as chief referee in 1993, sued in 2017. He claimed he was discriminated against because he had not been assigned to the World Series since 2005 and was passed over for crew chief.

U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken granted MLB’s motion for summary judgment in 2021, and Hernandez last year asked the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate the case.

Hernandez, 61, is sidelined with a back injury and has not worked on the field since San Francisco’s game against the Chicago White Sox on April 3, his only game this season.

Hernandez claimed that then-MLB manager Joe Torre, who made key umpiring decisions as the league’s head baseball officer (2011–20), harbored animosity towards him from Torre’s time as manager of the New York Yankees. The umpire’s attorney, Nicholas R. Gregg, said MLB should not have given Torre 100 percent authority to make crew decisions.

Hernandez claimed ex-MLB exec ‘Joe Torre had rooted against him since a Yankees game in 2018

“Take the decision out of his hands,” Gregg said during a 40-minute hearing. “You have an entire refereeing department that is full of referee supervisors, observers. You have several umpire executives. Make it a collective decision.’

Thirty minutes of the session was devoted to Gregg being questioned by the panel of three.

Senior Circuit Judge Susan L. Carney posed the question, “If there was one person who was a minority who made the decision, do you think it would be all right to assign authority to that one person?”

“The case law states that when sole authority rests with a non-minority, that can be the basis of the disparate impact claim,” Gregg said.

“Allowing Whites to Make Labor Decisions Is an Illegal Labor Practice?” circuit judge Steven Menashi asked.

“No, of course not,” Gregg replied. “It only gives authority to a non-minority person and does not use objective criteria. It is to let this non-minority exercise its subjective discretion alone.’

Torre, who was Yankees manager from 1996-2007, feuds with Hernandez in a 2007 game

Hernandez ejects Torre after the four-time World Series winner argued over a strike call in ’02

Menashi listed factors Torre testified about, including strike zone accuracy, missed calls, leadership, and enforcing required procedures.

“Those are objective criteria,” Menashi told Gregg. “You just don’t trust him to apply them faithfully.”

“Hustle is one of the factors,” added Senior Circuit Judge Rosemary S. Pooler. “I’ve always wanted a job where you paid for busyness.”

“If we do not deny that there were legitimate non-discriminatory reasons here, it does not mean that your client was not harmed by the practice because he was not denied the promotion because of the practice, but was denied the promotion because of the specific reasons were legitimate and non-discriminatory according to the court?’ Menashi said.

Turning to MLB attorney Neil H. Abramson, Pooler said, “The real problem is that there were so few minority umpires: 7 percent. How is that possible?’

“We take the umpires who are minor league umpires, and we don’t do the minor league recruiting,” Abramson replied.

“Do you think Major League Baseball doesn’t hire minority umpires out of prejudice?” Menashi asked Gregg. Or are you just saying that. Coincidentally, there aren’t enough of them in the pool, so we should look at the stats and they should promote the stats they have in the pool?’

Kerwin Danley became the first black crew chief in 2020 – a year after Randy Marsh’s comments

Alfonso Marquez became the first Hispanic crew chief born outside the US in 2000

Pooler was troubled by comments made by Randy Marsh in a May 2019 statement. Marsh, a former umpire who served as director of major league umpires from 2011 to 2019, said African Americans had been given brochures to get them into umpiring schools, but didn’t want to start with the minors. “The problem is, yes, they want the job, but they want to be in the big leagues tomorrow, and they don’t want to go through all of that,” Marsh said.

“It certainly shows a discriminatory view of the black candidates,” Pooler said.

“There are references to comments in the evaluations of African-American referees that also have racial implications that are under sealed,” said Gregg, who said Oetken made the sealing decision because the documents related to non-partisan job performance evaluations.

Hernandez served as interim crew chief from 2011 to 2016.

Kerwin Danley became the first black crew chief in 2020 and Alfonso Marquez became the first Hispanic crew chief born outside the United States. Born in Florida, Richie Garcia was the first Hispanic crew chief from 1985-89.

Hernandez is sometimes controversial on the field. He got three calls to first base that were destroyed in video reviews during Game 3 of the 2018 AL Division Series between the New York Yankees and Boston.