Court Rules In Favor of New York Legend, League in Discrimination Lawsuit

After further review, the call on the field stands, and Angel Hernandez has still been ruled out.

The long-time Major League Baseball umpire filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the MLB, stating that the league employed a racial bias when promoting umpires to positions of power within the league. He was on the losing end when a District Court made their decision two years ago, and in 2023, has once again been denied.

We have the latest updates on what went wrong for Angel Hernandez in his pursuit of justice, and why a long-time member of the New York Yankees' organization was at the center of it all.

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Angel Hernandez Loses in Court on Racial Discrimination Suit Against MLB, Torre

A story from The Associated Press shared an update that the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals had upheld a decision made in District Court two years ago, ruling in favor of Major League Baseball in a racial discrimination lawsuit filed against the league by one of its umpires, Angel Hernandez.

As part of its decision, the court stated this:

“Hernández has failed to establish a statistically significant disparity between the promotion rates of white and minority umpires." - The Associated Press

Now, where does Joe Torre come into the picture, exactly? Torre is currently a special assistant to the Commissioner of Baseball, a position he has had since 2020. He previously served as chief baseball officer, a position he held since 2011.

Given that Torre held this position for a decade, and had already served as a manager in Major League Baseball for a much longer period of time, he and Angel Hernandez have had a lot of interactions with one another.

As Hernandez alleges, the interactions have not gone well, and Torre is believed to hold a grudge against Hernandez due to a poor call he made against the New York Yankees while Torre was manager of the team.

Here's what Torre had to say about Hernandez in a particular performance review, while the former was overseeing the league's umpires:

 Hernandez 'has not demonstrated the leadership ability and situation-management skills in critical high-pressure roles on a consistent basis.'" - CBS Sports

Unfortunately for Angel Hernandez, Torre's description can now be backed up by analytics. Here is a tweet sent by @UmpireAuditor after a Yankees' game in which Hernandez was the home plate umpire:

Now, multiple aspects of this story can be true. As the AP writes, Kerwin Danley became the first Black crew chief in 2020 and Alfonso Marquez became the first Hispanic crew chief born outside the United States that same year. This should have happened far before 2020, and Major League Baseball should be held accountable for that.

That all being said, with the case of Angel Hernandez, there are other factors at-play. At least, that's how the legal system sees it.