Let's All Sing a Country Song

[MFS62]

'cause umpire "Country" Joe West announced his retirement today.

He hung in long enough to take the record for most MLB games umpired away from Hall of Fame ump Bill Klem.



Later

[Edgy MD]

I found a video of late called Joe West Sucks. I got beyond halfway through it before realizing that, on each of the plays they showed, I was more or less in West's corner, or at least in sympathy with him.



[media=youtube]MwjkDgqhT44[/media]



Who knows who makes this shit, but you'd figure that, when a guy umps for a million years, you'd be able to get a better "sucks" reel than that.



Joe West Sucks sucks!

[bmfc1]

The last good call he made was in "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!". Bye, Joe, you won't be missed.

[Edgy MD]

That vid also claims he's been blowing games since the 1980s. He actually debuted in 1976. Cleon Jones was still active when he debuted. So was Hank Aaron.



Won three conference championships as the starting quarterback with the NAIA Elon College (now University) Fighting Christians. Took them to the national championship game.



[fimg=350]https://www.elon.edu/u/wp-content/uploads/sites/74/2019/08/19213-380x558.jpeg[/fimg] [fimg=353]https://www.elon.edu/u/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/74/2019/08/19212.jpeg[/fimg]

[Frayed Knot]

I may have mentioned this before, but my total non-bb-fan bro-in-law somehow just recently stumbled upon a YT video dedicated to Joe West which he devoured simply because he knew, or at least knew of, Joe West from back when they went to the same HS.



West is a few years older but B-i-L knew all about him because West was the town's star athlete and few things get you more notice in the south (eastern NC) than being the star QB

[Edgy MD]

West wasn't a good ump, and had a tendency to get an attitude over lesser indiscretions, but I kind of liked him.



I know it's a bad thing when the ump gets himself noticed, but what can I say? I'm still advocating for Dutch Rennert's Hall of Fame candidacy.

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy MD wrote: Joe West Sucks sucks!

Yeah, I just got around to watching the first few minutes of that and I saw nothing that made him look bad at all.

Hell, we need MORE of the part where he started calling strikes on Raul Mondesi when he was slow to get to the plate.

[whippoorwill]

He certainly didn't look like a baked potato back then!

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah but look at him now.

Both his face and his body resemble a tuber.

[whippoorwill]