By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Wednesday dismissed longtime umpire Angel Hernandez’s lawsuit accusing Major League Baseball of racial discrimination.
The Cuban-born Hernandez, an MLB umpire since 1993, accused MLB of passing him over for crew chief and World Series assignments based on race and ethnicity, despite his being more senior and getting better performance reviews than other umpires receiving the plum assignments.
Hernandez said the discrimination stemmed from a “history of animosity” from Hall of Famer Joe Torre, a former New York Yankees manager, who was MLB’s chief baseball officer when Hernandez sued in 2017.
But in a 26-page decision, U.S. District Judge Paul Oetken in Manhattan said Hernandez did not show MLB subjected him to disparate treatment or that its policies disproportionately harmed minorities.
Oetken said MLB used factors other than seniority and performance when promoting umpires, and Hernandez did not show he was so much better qualified that discrimination might be inferred.
Citing an MLB expert, Oetken also said the fact that few minorities were promoted was “statistically meaningless,” because there were few available promotions and few minorities applied.
While “mindful of the reality of unconscious bias and of the built-in headwinds that can freeze out protected groups from job opportunities and advancement,” Oetken said Hernandez offered “insufficient evidence” of disparate treatment or harm.
Lawyers for Hernandez and MLB did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Hernandez claimed to have been rejected for crew chief positions five times between 2011 and 2018, and had last umpired a World Series in 2005.
He said Tor re’s animosity dated to 2001 when Torre, then managing the Yankees, criticized one his calls by saying Hernandez “just wanted to be noticed.”
Hernandez also cited a 2013 MLB document that only 7% of umpires were minorities, compared with 40% of National Football League referees and 48% of National Basketball Association referees.
The case is Hernandez v. Office of the Commissioner of Baseball et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 18-09035.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York)
