Umpire Joe West received a suspension for answering a question about who was the biggest complainer in baseball. The quote comes from this USA Today article:
“It’s got to be Adrian Beltre. Every pitch you call that’s a strike, he says, “Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!’ I had a game with him recently and the pitch was right down the middle. He tells me, “that ball is outside.’
“I told him, ‘You may be a great ballplayer, but you’re the worst umpire in the league. You stink.’’
I’ve never been overly impressed with Joe West’s strike zone. It seems to constantly move through the game, so maybe Beltre just complains to West. The problem, of course, is now Beltre can say that West shouldn’t umpire balls and strikes when Beltre is batting since West might be biased against Beltre.
This had me curious…. and the last time I could find Joe West as the home plate ump in a game Beltre played in, was June 17, 2017. In that game, Beltre had 2 called strikes, both down the middle. In the 3rd inning it was really right down the middle. In the 6th inning, it was in the middle of the plate but it was up in the zone. I’m guessing that’s the one Beltre complained about, and he probably honestly thought it was above the strike zone.
Couldn’t find video of either pitch to see Beltre’s reactions.
It is unbelievable that expressing a fairly innocuous opinion like that merits a suspension.
Tom » Well, speech does seem to be under fire these day. People get called on the carpet for racial and homosexual slurs, which make me wonder which kind of slurs are okay. Can you call a male fan a mother raper but not a father raper?
On the other hand, umpires are supposed to be unbiased, so if you express a bias publicly, that’s not a good thing.
Recently, I was listening to the opposing team radio broadcast of a Rangers game, and they noted that every time Elvis Andrus took a strike, he complained. When I’ve watched Rangers broadcasts recently, I see the same thing. I wonder if this is a strategy the Rangers employ, or if Beltre’s complaining rubbed off on Andrus.
Beltre says West confirmed early July he was joking, which is not surprising considering the pitch was down the middle and Beltre was smiling saying it was outside. He often does this. West was obviously tongue in cheek with the reporter. I’m heavily biased against West, but this was a player and ump joking with each other with the ump carrying it over to the reporter.
Now the meathead ump who tossed Beltre for the on deck circle incident, he should be fired and stripped of his pension.
As for Andrus, his hero, father, uncle, brother is Beltre. Just imitating his hero, including the “arguing”.
These last 2 comments are very Republican. I come here for baseball.