Baseball umpire Angel Hernandez had his racial discrimination case against the MLB chucked out by the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals, seemingly ending the litigation road for the Cuban-born on-field adjudicator.
The 2nd Court upheld a 2021 District Court decision, granting the MLB a summary judgement saying that Hernandez failed to categorically show statistical evidence that he was targeted, due to failing to be promoted to World Series since 2005.
This is his second and potentially last strike. He worked in the National League for nine years, ending in 1999, before making the jump to the majors. He has been an All-Star umpire on three occasions and a Division Series umpire 12 times.
He twice umpired the World Series, in 2002 and 2005.
It is also believed he was passed over for promotion to crew chief due to discrimination policies.
The 2nd Circuit said, “The MLB has provided persuasive expert evidence demonstrating that, during the years at issue, the difference in crew chief promotion rates between white and minority umpires was not statistically significant.”
Two judges, Susan L. Carney, and Steven J. Menash read out the judgement, following last week’s death of the third presiding office Judge Rosemary S. Pooler, who passed away last week age 85.
