Ángel Hernández is retiring to overwhelming approval from MLB fans and players around the league.
The much-maligned umpire who became the face of poor officiating not just in baseball, but in all sports, confirmed his impending retirement on Monday.
The news set off a slew of reactions that consisted largely of celebration and reminiscing about the low points of Hernández’s missed calls. The criticism is not aimed at Hernández as a person. But the consensus around Hernández as referee can be succinctly summarized in two words: good advice.
But there was one notable voice that spoke up for Hernández: retired MLB umpire Joe West.
West appeared on Chicago radio 670’s “Parkins & Spiegel Show” on Tuesday to discuss his former colleague. He believes Hernández got “a raw deal” from his critics.
“I think you all gave him a raw deal,” West said. “I’ll tell you this. This week he retired and he made a statement. And his statement was that he enjoyed what he did all those years. And whether you want to believe him or not, he was there well in.” .”
That last statement provoked a shocked response from co-host Matt Spiegel, who seems to believe that Hernández was in fact no good at his job.
“You can say, he missed this throw, or he missed that throw,” West continued. “You can do that with anyone. When you go on like that, it’s easy to follow someone and say, oh, he missed this pitch.”
Hernández missed a lot of throws. He repeatedly drew the passionate ire of players on the wrong side of his calls. Kyle Schwarber talked a lot about baseball during a particularly memorable interaction in 2022:
However, it comes as no surprise that West would defend Hernández. West retired from baseball in 2021 after more than 40 years on the job. He did this as one of the few baseball umpires who could rival Hernández in disparaging players.
He received his own share of rants from players and managers and was voted the second-worst umpire in baseball via an ESPN poll of players in 2010. Hernández came third in that poll, led by CB Bucknor.
So West can probably empathize with what Hernández may be going through if Hernández pays attention to the noise this week.
