Social Media Celebrates The Retirement Of Very Controversial Baseball Umpire Angel Hernandez

A good metric with which to judge an umpire or referee in a particular sport is whether or not the casual fan knows their name. If a referee is good at their job, then most fans won't know who they are because they are making accurate calls and thus are not the focus of controversy or discourse.

Many baseball fans know the name "Angel Hernandez."

The umpire ended a lengthy 33-season career on Monday by announcing his retirement from the game, and most baseball fans reacted like the cast at the end of The Wiz.

The fact is, Hernandez was legendarily not good at calling balls and strikes, much to the vexation of players and fans. Several "bad calls" compilations on social media feature Hernandez's errors.

While he wasn't literally the worst in the game, he had a tendency to "make the game about himself," meaning he had a very short fuse for dealing with disgruntled players.

For example, he was the umpire at the center of Kyle Schwarber's spectacular 2022 ejection after Schwarber had had enough of Hernandez's incompetence.

There are reports that the MLB reached a settlement with Hernandez to get him to leave the game, but Hernandez's lawyer insists he was "not kicked out" and Hernandez's official retirement letter says he wanted to spend more time with his family.

Whatever the case may be, social media is celebrating Hernandez's retirement as the end of a long national nightmare, replete with memes (particularly the viral "missed call" image), sarcastic tributes and compilations of his most egregious errors.

Post-baseball heaven has gotten another Angel, and from the looks of social media, it's clear he will not be missed.