Veteran umpire Ángel Hernández lost his appeal on Tuesday in his racial discrimination lawsuit against Major League Baseball, after a federal appeals court refused to reinstate his case. In 2021, Hernández lost his original lawsuit against MLB, but he appealed the decision. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the 2021 District Court decision that granted MLB a summary judgment.
The Cuban-born Hernández initially sued MLB in 2017, claiming the league is biased against minority umpires when deciding upon high-profile positions. He alleged he was discriminated against because he had not been assigned to the World Series since 2005 and had been passed over for promotion to crew chief. MLB promoted its first Black crew chief, Kerwin Danley, and first Latino crew chief born outside the U.S., Alfonso Márquez, both in 2020.
The 2nd Circuit said in an 11-page decision: “Hernández has failed to establish a statistically significant disparity between the promotion rates of white and minority umpires. 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. Hernández offers no explanation as to why MLB’s statistical evidence is unreliable.”. The decision was made by U.S. Circuit Judges Susan L. Carney and Steven J. Menash, who heard oral arguments on June 8. The court said the third member of the panel, Circuit Judge Rosemary S. Pooler, died Thursday.
Hernández also argued that Joe Torre, who was MLB’s chief baseball officer from 2011 to ’20 and made key decisions over umpires, held animosity toward Hernández dating back to Torre’s time as New York Yankees manager. The panel wrote: “Hernández has failed to show that the criteria Torre used in making crew chief promotion decisions caused the existing disparity between white and minority crew chiefs. Hernández has made no showing that Torre harbors a bias against racial minorities.”
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