The battle between umpire Angel Hernandez and Major League Baseball has taken another strange turn.
MLB has accused Hernandez of eavesdropping on a call with another umpire that was taking place as part of a league investigation, according to Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic. The league was looking into a July 24 Rays-Red Sox game that was delayed for 14 minutes over rules confusion, and interviewed the umpires involved. That included Hernandez, who was the acting crew chief for that contest.
MLB claimed that after Hernandez was interviewed by phone, he remained on the line to listen to the league’s interview with fellow umpire Ed Hickox. That led then-chief baseball officer Joe Torre to strip Hernandez of his acting crew chief status.
“These were purposefully scheduled as separate conversations, both to ensure confidentiality and to avoid the tainting of recollections,” Torre wrote in a letter to Hernandez last August. “At the conclusion of your interview, unknown to anyone else at the time, you remained on the line during Hickox’s interview.
“You acknowledged that you were aware prior to the calls that they were intended to be separate and did not dispute that you remained on the line. Instead, you offered a number of excuses for why you remained on the line. You claimed to not know whether you were supposed to stay on the line and that you wanted to be available if anything further was asked of you … your purported justification for staying on the line strains credulity in light of your claim that you only heard portions of the Hickox call and the fact that you remained silent even when you heard statements by Hickox that you later claimed to be inaccurate.”
Hernandez’s attorney accused MLB of using the allegation as retaliation because Hernandez is suing the league for discrimination.
“There is an old saying among lawyers if you have nothing to say about your clients attack the victim,” said Kevin Murphy of Murphy Landen Jones PLLC. “Angel Hernandez did not eavesdrop, he was invited onto that call … and MLB told Angel he made the correct decision.”
The letter was made public as part of legal filings made in an effort by MLB to have Hernandez’s discrimination suit dismissed.
Hernandez is, at least among fans, not regarded as one of the league’s better umpires. While this sort of thing isn’t likely to resonate with fans, it’s not going to help his reputation, either.
