Umpire Joe West has been suspended for three games. The veteran umpire has been suspended for “derogatory comments” towards Rangers’ third baseman Adrian Beltre. West, who has over 5000 ballgames under his belt, will now take a few days off due to MLB’s decision. As for the Umpires Union, they totally disagree with the call. That was to be expected. Here’s what the 64 year old umpire told USA Today:
“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 “The ball is outside”
“I told him, “You may be a great ballplayer, but you’re the worst umpire in the league. You stink”.
Umpires never have an easy time. They are constantly judged by entire ballparks and the whole world trough television. Despite this, they all learn to cope with criticism and simply stop caring about it. Yes, umpires have supervisors and observers in charge of keeping track of their performance. But they do not care that much either, they just let them do their job. So, why has MLB decided to suspend an apparently un-suspendable character?
Just Like Them
We have seen plenty of umpires ejecting players for seemingly nothing over the years. In addition, some of those ejections subsequently come along with fines and, you guessed it, suspensions. So it seems that Major League Baseball decided to behave just like an umpire and suspended West. Not even Beltre made as much noise as the league did. In fact, the Dominican ballplayer categorized the suspension as unnecessary . In all honesty, after going over his declaration many times, I still can not find the “Derogatory” element on it. The commissioner’s office must be pretty sensible.
Nobody is safe
As the title says, suspensions now “Cut both ways”. Umpires will be under the radar from now on. How can you suspend the maximum authority in the field? Players can wander around the club house, bashing umpires as much as they like. Sometimes, they even do it Japanese or Spanish, and nobody blinks an eye. But one of the most important judges in the game is sitting at home for “derogatory comments”. It seems suspensions are not exclusive for team members after all. At the end of the day, if Major League Baseball wants to freeze umpires for a while, at least make it for something that is actually worthy of a suspension.
What’s the point?
Umpires, as mentioned before, do not really care for opinions that much. Of course, veteran West is no exception. So we are left with a useless decision. Or maybe it is not so useless, West will get a bit of a rest. If you are planning to work postseason, rest is always welcomed. Nothing will change. Joe will still call the games as he does, and he will still think the same way about Beltre’s plate behavior. After so many years of service behind the plate, I assume missing three ballgames will not hurt that much.
Watch your back
From now on, the men who count balls and strikes might need to be a bit more careful. After this incident, whenever an ump goes public about something, he must watch his language. Whether they call a game in Boston or down at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, there will be someone up there in New York ready to slap them in the wrist if things go sour. And that is all there is to it: a simple slap in the wrist.