Aug 15, 2023 3 min read

In baseball

Umpire Ángel Hernández lost again in his racial discrimination lawsuit against Major League Baseball when a federal appeals court refused to reinstate his case on Tuesday.

The 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld a 2021 District Court decision that granted MLB a summary judgment.

The Cuba-born Hernández, hired as a big league umpire in 1993, sued in 2017. He alleged he was discriminated against because he had not been assigned to the World Series since 2005 and had been passed over for crew chief.

“Hernández has failed to establish a statistically significant disparity between the promotion rates of white and minority umpires,” the 2nd Circuit said in an 11-page decision. “MLB has provided persuasive expert evidence demonstrating that, during the years at issue, the difference in crew chief promotion rates between white and minority umpires was not statistically significant. Hernández offers no explanation as to why MLB’s statistical evidence is unreliable.”

• Daniel Murphy’s surprising comeback bid ended with the three-time All-Star infielder going on the voluntarily retired list after playing 38 games with the Los Angeles Angels’ Triple-A team.

Murphy was no longer on the active roster for the Salt Lake Bees on Tuesday, two days after he went 1 for 5 in his final game. His last major league game was with the Colorado Rockies during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, after which he said he was retiring.

The 38-year-old Murphy hit .295 for the Bees with one homer and 25 RBIs in 40 games.

The Angels signed him to a minor league deal in June after he hit .331 in 37 games this season for the Long Island Ducks in the independent Atlantic League.

In auto racing

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing parted with driver Jack Harvey on Tuesday and will put Conor Daly in its No. 30 car when the IndyCar Series resumes its season Aug. 27 at World Wide Technology Raceway near St. Louis.

The team has not announced a driver for the final two races at Portland on Sept. 3 and Laguna Seca the following weekend.

Harvey joined RLL last season but has never finished better than 10th in any race.

Steele leaving ESPN

ESPN and host Sage Steele have settled a lawsuit she filed after being disciplined for comments she made about the company’s policy requiring employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Steele posted on social media Tuesday that she is leaving the Bristol, Connecticut-based company, where she has worked since 2007.

“Having successfully settled my case with ESPN/Disney, I have decided to leave so I can exercise my first amendment rights more freely,” she wrote. “I am grateful for so many wonderful experiences over the past 16 years and am excited for my next chapter!”

Steele was taken off the air for 10 days in October 2021 and pulled from several high-profile assignments, including including coverage of the New York City Marathon, the Rose Parade, and the annual ESPNW Summit, because she criticized ESPN and The Walt Disney Co.’s requirement that employees be vaccinated against COVID-19, according to her lawsuit, which was filed in May 2022 in Connecticut Superior Court.

She also was required to make a public apology, the lawsuit said.

Steele’s comments critical of ESPN came while she was speaking on a podcast hosted by former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler and just after getting the vaccine herself to comply with the policy, according to her lawsuit.