Beckett Penalty Repudiates Umpire Joe West Too

as I began to uncharacteristically use certain four letter adjectives to describe West’s strike zone given to Wakefield and his knuckle ball. I am sure she thought she was going to have to call 911 after I had my stroke before the game was over.

I have always felt that MLB needs to hold umpires publicly accountable for the way they call a game. With the technology being available to track strikes and the ability to review calls through instant replay, there should be a line in the box score for every game showing the fan how may bad calls the umpire made for each team.

Welcome to 2009 – the time where no one is accountable or responsible for their own actions and everything is always the “other guy’s fault”.

The way this will play out is that the players union will defend and justify Beckett’s actions (at the expense of Abreu and Hunter) likely claiming “the ball simply slipped from Beckett’s hand when he attempted to stop the delivery of the pitch”, and the umpires union will defend and justify West’s actions likely claiming “he was provoked”.

Beckett’s suspension will likely be reduced in half in the appeal; West will be hailed as a “peacemaker” for preventing a full scale brawl.

This is the aspect of baseball I despise.

need to be held to a higher standard. If the league goes back and determines that a player needs to be suspended, then the umpires who worked that game, need to be suspended as well.

In watching the replay, I see where Joe West comes out from behind the plate and doesn’t see where Beckett threw at Abreu’s head. Are you telling me that all three of the other umpires didn’t see it either. Did they all look down the left field line to see what Joe west was looking at.

This entire crew should be suspended for at leat 3 games for what they let happen on Sunday, and if it is true that one of the umpires made a comment that the Angels needed an extra day off after what happened to Adenhart, that umpire should be suspended for another 10 games for that.

are invisible?

I’ve read that umpires are graded using the Questec system, but I don’t know if they are “graded” or held accountable for too many missed calls.

The problem is when umpires think they’re part of the game and want to be involved more than they should. At no time should they ever bait a player or manager, that should be grounds for suspension.

Read Rev’s post in the voice and style of Edward R. Murrow. It’s awesome.

there were terrible calls against the halos all series long. It’s time for the league to handle their business like every other legitimate sport does.

of Joe West and Doug Eddings…..

In the legal system, an attorney can “paper” a specific judge on a specific case in order to get him replaced if he can document a pattern of bias regarding some aspect of the case. I think that West’s saying that Beckett’s ball did not go near Abreu’s head is prima facie evidence of bias against the Angels, to say nothing of his reported comments concerning the team’s reaction to Nick Adenhart’s passing. This goes light-years beyond favorable strike zones and the like. West has demonstrated a willingness to use his authority to attempt to change the outcome of a game, combined with animus against the Angels.

Of course, the real answer is that West should be sent off to Nashville to concentrate on his songwriting full-time, but apparently a tenured umpire is as hard to dislodge as a tenured professor.

I say we change his nickname from “Cowboy Joe West” to “Führer Joe West”.

Panther.

but i really think that next time the Angels (or any other team) faces Becky, they should call time on every AB

If there is anything funny about this pompous arrogant ass, Joe West, are the parallels between him and Tim Donaghy. Continually acting as if their actions or biases are beyond reproach or question. West allowed what in essence was a flagrant violation to occur ( becky throwing at Abreu, when he, and homeplate ump Paul Shrieber had called time) and then, throwing all conventional wisdom out the window….along with tossing Sosh, Hula Dula, and Speier out the game. This man is a joke of an official, and the sad thing is the MLB and commissioner Selig will stand behind him, rather than admit that all is not well within the umpire ranks.

An ass of West’s degree, shouldn’t have been in the ranks. The fact that a person of his stature was allowed to remain umpiring was complete BS. While MLB finally has done the right thing, does not excuse people like Eddings and West to still be on the payroll, and if MLB had done the right thing initially, they wouldn’t be a part of the conversation, that was the focal point of my argument.