SNY Mets crew gives unceremonious sendoff to Angel Hernandez

That prompted Analyst Ron Darling to push back “we didn’t really kick him around, did we?” 

Cohen responded that he felt everyone did. 

“Is he going to make a ‘Checkers Speech’?” Keith Hernandez jumped in to say, which elicited laughter from Cohen. 

The comment was a reference to a speech by then-Sen. Richard Nixon gave in 1952 to deny that he had misused political funds where he also mentioned his dog named Checkers.

The now-former umpire announced his retirement in a statement on Monday night after USA Today had broke the news. 

The much-criticized Hernandez cited a desire to spend more time with his family as the reason why he was stepping away after a 33-year career as an umpire. 

Hernández is often viewed as one of the the worst umpires in baseball by fans, players and media and he has not worked a game since May 9. 

“I’ve never seen more reaction to an umpire calling it quits than the announcement that Ángel Hernández was retiring from umpiring,” Cohen said during Wednesday’s broadcast. “I mean, there are a lot of not-very-good umpires. He was just one of them.”

While Hernández has plenty of detractors, he did find some support in former ump Joe West during an appearance on 670 The Score in Chicago on Tuesday. 

“Whether you want to believe it or not, he was good at it,” West said on the “Parkins & Spiegel Show.”

West called the ripping of Hernández over the years unfair and added that critics didn’t “know what they’re talking about.”