World Series: It's Not Good When an Umpire Is Noticed
Usually, it’s not major news when MLB announces its umpiring crew for a World Series. And usually that’s a good thing because umpires, when they do their job effectively, shouldn’t be noticed. But this year appears to be different and one of the umpires for this year’s World Series is already making headlines even before a game is played.
How World Series Umpires Are Selected
Mainly, it is the job of Joe Torre, MLB’s Director of Baseball Operations, to select the umpires who will work the World Series. He performs this task with a eye mainly centered on experience, but at the same time he’s looking to reward newer umpires who have excelled over the last year or so.
He stresses the experience factor because he wants to have a crew that has seen just about every scenario that can happen during a ballgame. Because the last thing he wants is an umpiring crew standing around with their hands in their pockets and looking up at the sky wondering, “What the hell are we supposed to do with this one?” while the clock is ticking and TV viewers grab the remote and switch to the latest episode of The Kardashians.
The Problem with Joe West
But this year’s crew includes a umpire known around the league as “Cowboy Joe”, which is a bad sign to begin with because umpires are not supposed to have nicknames. His name is Joe West and he’s advertised on MLB’s website as being a crew chief and an umpire with 38 years and 4,821 games under his belt. So he’s definitely got the experience thing going for him.
Now, here’s the rub. Although this will be West’s sixth appearance in a World Series, it’s his first since 2012. So if he’s so good and experienced, where has he been the last few years?
Writing for FOX Sports, Rob Neyer didn’t hold back from his thoughts: “By nearly any measure, Joe West is an awful umpire. He’s got a well-earned reputation for turning situations into conflagrations, and making himself the center of attention. The numbers don’t help him much, either.”
He goes on to point out that Joe West nearly won a poll in 2010 as baseball’s worst umpire. Then in 2011, he actually “won” the poll. So that’s where the controversy begins as a matter of his competence. And it’s likely that his selection has not gone unnoticed by either Joe Maddon or Terry Francona, the respective managers of the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians in the World Series.
More from Call to the Pen
But at the same time, there’s no way they’re going to pipe up now and say anything either way about Mr. West, even though as baseball savvy as each man is, they would have plenty to say under different circumstances.
In fact, it’s likely that Maddon at least is still smarting a bit from an incident from a game in late September when West threw Maddon out of a game with his usual flamboyance after Maddon complained about something involving a delay of game tactic that he felt would be ignored by any other umpire.
See for yourself. Here’s the incident…
Following the game, Maddon told CSN Chicago,
“The fact that I got thrown out of the game — I don’t care. Big deal. It’s just something that I had to do in the moment based on an inappropriate reaction by the umpire. That’s it.
“It’s normal protocol. I’m not asking for anything extraordinary. I think any manager… I’m almost certain the other 29 would have done exactly the same thing. There’s no question.”
The World Series Shouldn’t Be About Joe West
So while FOX may be licking its chops in hopes (read: ratings) that West will do something stupid again, and one of the managers will get involved in one those classic in-your-face arguments on the field, and that West will exercise his right (though not necessarily his duty) to throw the manager out of a World Series game, the rest of us would rather see a World Series where umpires go unnoticed. Because that will mean they’ve done an excellent job.
Joe Torre put himself out there and I’m sure he had his reasons for selecting West. But this is the World Series and this one has the promise of being unlike any other we have seen in a good while. And it would be a shame if, when it ends, all we’re talking about is Joe West.