If there’s one thing many baseball broadcasters, other media members, and fans can agree on, it’s criticizing particularly-infamous umpires. Perhaps the most notable target there over the years has been Ángel Hernández, who suddenly retired this week. But that hasn’t stopped him from being brought up. And that’s now extended to…the Ohio state legislature, where secretary of state Frank LaRose (a Republican first elected to that role in November 2018 and reelected in November 2022) invoked Hernández in response to “false statements” about a proposed ban on foreign money in the state’s elections.
In which Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose invokes controversial and recently retired MLB ump Ángel Hernández in a statement on the foreign money ban being considered in the Legislature. pic.twitter.com/LQgDsBpci1
— Henry J. Gomez (@HenryJGomez) May 31, 2024
That’s certainly a line. And while sports references are far from uncommon in politics, especially from politicians with sports backgrounds, this one was particularly unexpected. There aren’t a lot of natural connections between Hernández and proposed legislation on money in elections in Ohio, so this is simply about the idea of a bad call. It certainly does make sense that one would associate that with Hernández, though.
But it’s fair to wonder, as ESPN Radio’s Evan Cohen did this week, if the wide amount of popular attention to bad baseball calls will continue after Hernández’s exit. After all, he was one of the few umpires to be frequently ripped by name by even national reporters and columnists like Ken Rosenthal and Jeff Passan, not just announcers (although there were plenty of announcers criticizing his calls as well).
There may be many “not very good umpires,” as SNY’s Gary Cohen said this week. But it’s hard to imagine any other current umpire drawing the amount of buzz needed for a secretary of state to bring them up in unrelated legislation. So if we don’t have Hernández to kick around any more, where will politicians turn next?
[Henry Gomez on X/Twitter]
