“Cowboy” Joe West: baseball legend retires

A baseball legend has left the building, a master of his craft and as divisive as anyone who has ever taken the field, “Cowboy” Joe West has officially announced what he hinted at in October: he has called his last game. Fan opinion has always been divided on Joe West, usually depending on what call he made when your team was playing, but there is no escaping the fact that he was one of a kind.

The North Carolina native began his major league umpiring career in 1976 with a late-season game between the Atlanta Braves and the Houston Astros. He cultivated a rockstar personality both on the field and off, rubbing some baseball fans the wrong way. Off the field, he recorded two country music albums, appeared in two movies and played on the Celebrity Players Golf Tour.

Last May, he surpassed Bill Klem’s record of 5,375 regular season games and retires as MLB’s all-time leader in games called, with 5,460. He admitted that setting the MLB record was his goal this past season. "I thought I would do it last year but the season got a little messed up and I don't think it was right to work until the point of the record then just quit," West told ESPN back in October.

Reactions to West's retirement were mixed on social media. His epic stare-down against Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner in 2015 and his tossing of Cubs right fielder Andre Dawson in 1991 have stirred up feelings that he tried to be the center of attention too often.

But the rub is this: Joe was right. In both of these examples, and many others that you can dredge up, the players were emotional and petulant and, I’m sorry to say this to Hall of Famer Andre Dawson especially, completely in the wrong. The rules of baseball are clear, arguing with an umpire is illegal. Joe West was an excellent ball-strike caller. His knowledge of the rules was impeccable.

He even gave players the chance to vent some frustration, to a point. But what Joe West never did, and this seems to be the heart of the matter, is take nonsense from anyone. He was in charge of the game, just as the rules of baseball stipulate. Sometimes that means that you have to go toe-to-toe, or in Bumgarner’s case eye-to-eye, with some of these big egos.

There has been concern in the past few years that his best days were behind him. Perhaps it was time for the Cowboy to ride off into the sunset. If so, Joe West made sure that it was on his terms, and love him or hate him, one thing is sure: baseball fans will never forget him.