There’s been some interesting stories in the world of baseball in recent weeks, some of which I would have liked to comment on one way or another, but there is one that sparked my interest above the rest.

Umpire Joe West.

Here’s a screenshot of the article Yahoo has on him today….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The article is pretty good in my opinion, of course it’s technically just an opinion in itself. The work of Yahoo national sports writer Jeff Passan.

If you don’t know the whole story, you need to read this article which you can do by clicking here.

I agree with Passan’s stance that umpires should be invisible, but I would add a caveat that there does a come a time when an umpire’s presence is required. At that time, I have no problem whatsoever with him taking over a situation. Whether it’s warning pitchers and benches after a little round of “beanball”, or reviewing video to figure out if a hit is a home run or not, there are going to be times when all attention is on an umpire and even the entire crew, but it’s when an umpire calls attention to himself at inopportune times that’s the issue here.

Leave the spotlight stealing for your stage act Mr. Cowboy Joe, and get to the business at hand.

Being seen and not heard.

Agree, diagree, let me know.