Longtime umpire Joe West to retire after 2021 postseason

[Ron Madden]

When he screws up let's hope it goes against St. Louis

Infamous MLB umpire Joe West has officially informed the league he will retire following the 2021 postseason, ESPN reported Monday.

West enters the postseason having umped 10 league championship series and six World Series. He will reportedly be behind the dish for Wednesday's NL wild-card matchup between the Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals.

Although West is regarded by many within the game as one of the best, he has long been a controversial figure for fans and pundits.

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[wlf WV]

I can see how that call was made on LeMahieu. The baseball could have cut across the plate. I’m still for robo balls and strikes.

[DocRed]

Good...

[WrongVerb]

Don't let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya.

[Roy Tucker]

I used to like umps with a little character like West. Before he got old and crotchety, the Country Joe thing was kinda fun.

But hi-def video and replay have exposed the lousy balls and strikes umps and Joe is one of them. That overrides the character thing pretty fast.

[DocRed]

The modern day Umps are bad enough but the od school guys are even worse and I'm only talking about the way they call games and the metrics that prove them to be inferior. Shoulda fired them all..

[SomeCallMeTim]

I used to like umps with a little character like West. Before he got old and crotchety, the Country Joe thing was kinda fun.

But hi-def video and replay have exposed the lousy balls and strikes umps and Joe is one of them. That overrides the character thing pretty fast.

Spot on. K-zone and 3d reality have made even more damning.

Lets face it, the human eye is a mircale but to perceive a quarter inch difference of a moving object at 90-102 mph is guessing at best.

Time for the tech.