..is the obvious line that 80% of the vested internet has utilized in some shape or form, but honestly there’s really no better way to explain how MLB’s best-worst umpire managed to eject a player, twice, in a single Spring Training game.
In short, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Lance Lynn is ejected from a no-stakes spring training game for daring to have the audacity to question the strike zone of the routinely worst-rated umpire in MLB, Angel Hernandez. Angel, who is as soft as airport single-ply toilet paper, demonstrates his constitution by throwing out a veteran player from a meaningless Spring Training game, instead of perhaps laughing or having a little fun in a game that does not matter.
Obviously, a fat veteran like Lance Lynn probably couldn’t care any less, but understands that he still had a job to do on the day, which was to throw a set amount of pitches, as part of some Spring Training throwing routine he’s probably utilized forever, considering he in his 13th MLB season, so instead of hitting the showers early, he trudges over to the bullpen to get his throwing done. Apparently Angel Hernandez saw an opportunity to phish out some more attention, so instead of letting a dead horse lie, he flexes on Lynn some more, and demands that he also leave the bullpen and get the fuck off his field outright.
At this point, it’s apparent that Lynn is annoyed, and that’s probably the intent that Angel wanted, and it probably annoyed the piss out of him that Lynn didn’t seem to care about getting the hook from the game, but now that he’s going to have to go out of his way to finish his work or cut it short outright, it is rightfully an annoyance, and that’s obviously what Angel wanted to get out of him, because it really is what Angel Hernandez lives for.
This is all just hilarious because every baseball fan and their mothers all know that Spring Training games don’t count for shit, and are nothing but ceremonial cash grabs for MLB teams to rake in tourism dollars, while players and personnel get glorified paid practice time. Sure, umpires need a little time too, to perhaps iron out any modifications in the rule book, see real-time use of the updated pitch clock, but the strike zone is something that is for all intents and purposes, unchanged from year to year, minus the personal subjectivity that every individual umpire has.
Angel Hernandez tossing anyone out, much less once, is a testament to just how soft the guy is, and just how much he craves and seeks and does whatever it takes to garner attention onto himself, regardless of just how much he vehemently denies doing such. There are reasons why he’s pretty much the most well-known umpire in the game, and for all the wrong reasons, and it’s always a redundant question every season how he somehow manages to have a job year in and year out.
Much probably has to do with the long-standing, reoccurring lawsuit he has against his own employers, citing racial discrimination, and the sheer headache that MLB probably wants to avoid by keeping him employed versus the mountains of litigation he’d bring down on the league if they were ever to fire him. It’s like he’s basically holding a gun to the head of MLB to ensure that he maintains his employment, no matter how grossly unqualified he is to keep it.
No matter, it’s not that I really care about this so much as it’s just ironically funny whenever Angel Hernandez’s name gets brought up. Usually it’s not happening in the springtime unless it pertains to his lawsuit, but in Angel’s world, there’s no time that shouldn’t be Angel’s time, so it really shouldn’t be a surprise that if there was going to be one noteworthy ejection that happened in Spring Training, of course it was going to be done by Angel Hernandez.