This Jeff Passan guy sounds like a real horse's a$$. Talk about someone unqualified to speak about an umpire's ability! The article is laced with comments that prove this writer doesn't have a clue about the game of baseball, much less umpiring.

Imo the only pertinent and newsworthy fact(if it is indeed a fact) in the article was that the MLB head office is planning to fine and/or suspend West. Everything else was a re-hash of personal prejudices on the writer's side, which is what most of these articles are usually about anyway.

Agreed. I just sent the guy a nastigram - feel free to do the same.

I just did. I gave him a lot to get through his thick skull about Joe West and umpiring in general.

Mike & Steve,

As has been said, "Never argue with an idiot. He will simply drag you down to his level and then beat you with experience."

I fear your missives will neither enlighten, chasten, nor subdue Mr. Passan. He's a self-important gasbag with an oversized ego that will only be fed by your attention.

I wouldn't have bothered.

JM

You sure about that? I'm not a MLB umpire, nor have I read their contract with MLB, but unless there's something in the contract that forbids it, West can talk on whatever show asks him, if he wants to. And he can comment on the length of games, if he wants. He's still an American citizen. If you're against free speech, go join your friends in Al Qaeda.

Might not be the wisest course for him, but he's certainly allowed.

Happy Memorial Day.

There's something in the MLBUM about the crew chief only or MLB talking about calls that took place in a game. West is probably the crew chief so he can talk about the plays. Not sure about 2010, but I did ready something along those lines in 2009

I'm guessing that West's fine has more to do with his publicist (!) releasing what series West was going to be umpiring ahead of time and inviting media contact. I doubt it has anything directly to do with the on-field incident with Chicago.

What about the shooing-away of Ozzie? I think that's where his fine comes in. There's no way I ever want to be caught shooing away a coach like that. I speak from basketball experience, but I would think that this applies to all sports, doesn't matter if it's cheerleading or basketball. It just looks ridiculously unprofessional.

Just what some of the reports are saying.

It's about his self-promotion activity.

Free speech stops at the workplace door (ask your own lawyer if you wish).

Considering the source from this MLB.com article "Umpire Joe West and White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen and pitcher Mark Buehrle were all fined an undisclosed amount of money by Major League Baseball on Friday for their part in an incident that involved called balks earlier this week, a person with knowledge of the situation told MLB.com.
No suspensions were levied. A spokesman for MLB declined to comment and would not confirm nor deny the financial sanctions. "

I doubt that West was fined, someone in MLB probaby threw that tidbit out to satisfy the angry press.

And on the topic of West being a bad umpire, being selected to work the World Series last year sort of negates that.

West was, indeed fined. I can tell you as well that MLB is not very happy with Joe over the comments he publicly made, which was not permitted under their contract. A prior incident involving Joe also has earned him MLB's ire.

He was telling Ozzie not to come out to argue the balk. That is pretty common in the bigs.

West's actions were unprofessional. The guy's got an ego as big as Ozzie's, which is very big. West's fine was deserving.