The campaign to keep Joe West out of the Hall of Fame has already begun.
Yes, really.
Cowboy Joe, who broke the Major League record for games umpired last season, officially retired on Friday after umpiring 5,460 regular-season games . Not everyone will miss him.
“Joe West retired today. So officially commencing my campaign for him NOT to be voted into the Hall of Fame via Today’s Era group in December,” MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweeted. “He’s eligible. But plenty of better candidates: Bonds, Clemens, Schilling, Sosa, McGriff, McGwire, Bernie, Lofton, plus [managers] Bochy, Leyland, Pinella.”
West had a decorated career, working six World Series and three All-Star games over a record-setting 43 seasons. He’s also released multiple country music albums, gaining notoriety in doing so.
Ten umpires are currently in the Hall of Fame, with Hank O’Day being the last one elected in 2013 via the Pre-Integration Era Committee.
When the Today’s Era group does meet, they’ll have to deal with the candidacies of a number of steroid-tainted players, as Heyman alluded to in his tweet: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire. The Baseball Writers’ Association of America kept those players out of the Hall, with Bonds and Clemens receiving 66 and 65.2 percent of the vote in their final year on the ballot, respectively.
David Ortiz was the only player elected by the BBWAA this year after nobody received the honor in 2020.
Roberto Ortiz became the first Puerto Rican-born umpire to join the big league staff in a series of retirements and promotions announced Friday by MLB.
“I am honored and blessed to have the privilege of becoming the first Puerto Rican umpire to be hired by MLB,” the 37-year-old Ortiz said. “It fills me with pride to be able to represent my family and my island of Puerto Rico in what I consider the best league in the world.”
Longtime umpires Gerry Davis, Kerwin Danley, Brian Gorman and Fieldin Culbreth also have retired.
— with AP
