New Music from Joe West
 

For your listening pleasure...are you kidding me? :)

http://www.umpirejoewest.com/Blue%20Cowboy.htm

correct me if I'm wrong, wasn't he the youngest umpire ever in the big leagues, and youngest to work the world series...and how many years has he been in the show??? ...

Took a shot off my WV tonight, and that "WHACK" was Joe West music to my ears!!!!

Too many. He now has the footwork of a fire hydrant. And that plate stance....

You should live long enough to umpire as well as Joe.

From henceforth your new name is:

canadaRAT6

And by the way, once you start umpiring at a level where the players are old enough and big enough to actually hit homeruns...you will see that even the best can miss a foul/homerun call.

I really don't care about the accuracy of calls, but more about mechanics and hustle. You've got to look good at what you're doing. That's why we shine our shoes and iron our pants. Joe's new garden gnome plate stance, along with slothlike footwork makes us look bad. These guys are at the top of the sport, and should be a reflection of how it's supposed to be done. Now it's looking more and more like Little League Worlds series umpires, getting the big spot for many, many, MANY years of community service.

Kyle,

That's a rather interesting perspective for an umpire.

Do you have many ejections at your games?

JM

Worth every penny...
 

Yep, I had my first game of the year(!) on Tuesday, wearing my new(-to-me) WV.... Paid for itself that night (fastball, ticked past the catcher and straight at me!), especially after I looked at the dusty imprint of baseball stitches in the middle of my shirt!

Partner heard the "WHACK" and came to check on me between innings, but I, of course, hardly felt a thing. Count me in as a fan of that kind of JW music from up here, north of the border.

Andrew

You're the one huh? :D

GarthB,Lawump
 

GarthB: I'm not trying to be rude here or anything, but I do believe Joe West needs to stop binging on Mcdonald's after every game and spend the money getting himself a pair of perscription glasses. If he missed that one call, he probably has missed a number of other calls as well.

Perhaps he should take up tee ball, then he could be perfect like you.

T-Ball?
 

What is it that makes people believe that I only umpire tee ball? First game of the season was adult rec. Yesterday was 12-13 year old All Star. Day before that was 13-14 year old All Star. I've got a Tier 2 game coming up which will be ages 15 to 18 and I will be working with a AA umpire. While I'm not yet comfortable doing PBLO, adult All Star and university-level ball, I sure as heck am not a constant t-ball umpire either.

I do take pride in my flexibility and willingness to work any level of game that my assignor asks me to do. The day after my adult game I did a 7 year old machine pitch game to help teach a rookie umpire a few things on his first game of his career. I think that while most veteran umpires on here would choose to do mostly higher-level ball, we should also be willing to do some younger levels to give back to the community and help teach newcomers the basics of umpiring.

AA umpire? MiLB AA umpire? Maritime Provinces AA umpire?

GarthB
 

What does MiLB stand for anyways? I've heard said before but can't think of what it might be.

This umpire did AA ball in the professional baseball system. I'd rather not give any details just to protect his privacy.

Minor League Baseball.

I assume, then, since AA ball is in full swing, your partner is a former AA umpire.

Something against former MiLB umpires? :D

My partner is taking a year off as he is getting married, then he'll be going right back to AA to continue umpiring.

As an aside, my first year in the minors was in the NY-Penn League...which is in the part of the country that I'm originally from. Thus, during the season I (and my crewmate) got to see quite a bit of my parents and family.

Anyways, when we'd be out in public, my Mom would introduce me to her friends and others as, "and this is my son Matt and his partner Joe" (my partner's name is changed since he's still in the game and I'm not into dropping names).

After getting enough weird looks, my father finally pulled her aside and told her to introduce me as "Matt and his co-worker, Joe". I appreciated her not using "partner" to describe Joe and I off the field.

I'm happily married have two kids and am not gay ("not that there's anything wrong with that!" as Seinfeld would say)

No, I've got something against bullsh!t artists.

Hmmmm. A MiLB umpire who has worked his way to AA is taking a year off and then will go back to continue where he left off.

The BS Meter is glowing.