Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Umpire Joe West needs to eject himself


Even when Major League Baseball umpire Joe West gets it right, he gets it wrong.

West rightfully overturned a call by third base umpire Chris Guccione in the Florida Marlins’ 3-1 win over the Padres on Monday night.

Guccione called a line drive by Hanley Ramirez fair in the seventh inning; replays showed it was barely foul and West made the right call in overturning Guccione.

Then West did what he does best; he made the wrong call with his overly aggressive actions.

As soon as Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez came out to argue, West put up his hands up as if to tell Gonzalez not to come out. Within five seconds of arguing, Gonzalez was ejected by the hot-headed West.

Great umpires over history such as Doug Harvey let managers have their say and don’t eject people right away for arguing overturned calls. Ones like West think they are the show; and they are only too willing to prove they are the boss, such as West did Monday night.

“To me, that’s when an umpire tries to get a little bigger than the game,” color analyst Tommy Hutton said on the FSN Florida telecast. “That’s not his job.”

Hutton’s comments were right on.

If anybody needed to be ejected, it should have been West for trying to be bigger than our National Pastime; which he’s not!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

As a baseball umpire myself at a lower level than Joe West of course, it is indeed a shame when the umpire feels he has to become part of the show. The best officated games are those when umpires are seen but not heard. Let the coach have his say and then stand by your call.Don'0t feel like you have to become the center piece of the action. The fans, tv radio and all other media are there to watch the players; not the umpires.

Anonymous said...

joe west is a great umpire---i have watched him over the years and he is rarely wrong...the fact that he might be a little bit of a show off is no worse than a lot of the players and managers...i have seen managers and players ruin a lot of umpires by running over them...umpires are a part of the show and always have been---lots of managers and players try to get kicked out of games to leave early or go in the clubhouse to watch tv...get off west and talk about all the bad calls made by umpires that are seen but never heard...most of them are lucky to be in the big leagues....

Unknown said...

What Joe West probably told the manager before they overturned the call is that you cannot come back out here to argue this call if we do change it. When Joe told the guy not to come any closer to argue this play (and delay the game more)and the guy still came to him, he has to eject him. It is his job to be true to his word. Good job Joe.

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