Quote:
Originally Posted by mbcrowder
Exactly why are you qualified to make the decision as to who he can talk to? Within the bounds of his contract, he can talk to whoever he wants. He has just as much right to discuss this call with the radio as Ozzie and Mark did with the TV.
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Am I qualified? Probably as much as anybody with an officiating license. Is it my decision to make? Certainly not. However, I'm taking the fine as vindication that those that do make that decision share my opinion. It's not about baseball...I specifically said I didn't care about the balks or the ejections. It's not about employment contracts or freedom of speech. It's about how officials should conduct themselves both on and off the field. It's about a social contract with his fellow umpires. As a fellow official (even if it is a different sport), I fail to see how my opinion is completely worthless in this area.
West's off-field actions (and those of his
PR person) are what drives the comments from the rats of "injected himself into the game" and "wanted to sell more CDs." Let me be clear...I'm not defending those comments. They're pure BS AFAIC. But, Joe doesn't help himself or his fellow umpires when he seeks out the media outlets afterward.
Perhaps you'd feel better if I made it a hypothetical instead of calling out Joe West specifically. So here goes. If one of the officials in my association went seeking attention from the media after making a non-controversial call (from the officials' perspective) that was made controversial by the coaches, players, and media; there would be a major fecal-storm at our next meeting.