No need for veteran MLB umpire ‘Cowboy’ Joe West (aka ‘Country’ Joe West) to have his hearing checked. No, he seems to be hearing just fine; well enough to eject Washington Nationals President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo from the third deck while he was on the field umpiring during the seventh inning of Sunday’s game between the Nationals and Atlanta Braves at Truist Park (formerly Sun Trust Park) in Atlanta. Although it is still unclear exactly what Rizzo was yelling at West, several sources have reported that West repeatedly yelled back at Rizzo to “Get out!”

A short while later, it was reported on social media that West had actually ejected Rizzo for not wearing a mask while in his luxury suite at Truist Park, although it’s pretty easy to read between the lines here.

Rizzo’s ejection is unique compared to the (many) other ejections West has issued during his 44 years as an MLB umpire. This time West had to employ the services of stadium security officers to do his dirty work. Several sources reported that Rizzo was yelling comments like “you’re brutal,” and West was (apparently) tired of hearing it. (I’m not making this stuff up, folks).

“We’re in a pandemic situation, you can hear everything,” West told Fox News while noting that there were no fans present at the ballpark due to the coronavirus pandemic. “Enough is enough,” West added. “I wouldn’t take that from a player. I wouldn’t take that from a manager.”

West then tried to get cute by adding: “If it was Donald Trump, I’d eject him, too. But I’d still vote for him.”

Due to the uncertainty of what was said to West and how the event played out exactly, Major League Baseball will be looking into what happened that led to Rizzo’s ejection, just as they do with every ejection.

“We have already been in communication with the Nationals regarding what transpired during [Sunday’s] game, and we will speak with the umpiring crew today,” MLB said in a statement.” We will expect Joe West’s crew to provide a full account of their perspective, and we will follow up with them accordingly.”

67-year-old West is currently on track to set a record for most games umpired in MLB history. He should achieve this record sometime next season. That is, of course, if COVID-19 doesn’t further shorten this year’s already short 60-game season.

It’s probably a good thing that there aren’t any fans in the stands right now with West’s track record of ejections, which date back to August 1990 when he ejected Phillies utility infielder/outfielder Von Hayes during a game against the Dodgers. His ejection stemmed from comments Hayes made to his first base coach about West’s bad calls as the home plate umpire that West overheard; comments which, according to West, included a curse word. The good news, at least for Dodger fans, is that Phillies ended up losing that game to the Dodgers by a score of 3-2.

Perhaps we should tell the cardboard cutouts at Dodger Stadium to yell as loud as they can, in case ‘Cowboy Joe’ comes to Dodger Stadium. Wouldn’t want a Dodger player to get ejected now, would we?

Let’s play Ball!

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