2024 Contemporary Baseball Era Committee Candidates: Ed Montague and Joe West

This submit is a part of a collection protecting the 2024 Contemporary Baseball Era Committee Managers/Executives/Umpires poll, protecting candidates in these classes who made their biggest influence from 1980 to the current. For an introduction to the poll, see right here. The eight candidates will likely be voted upon on the Winter Meetings in Nashville on December 3, and anybody receiving at the least 75% of the vote from the 16 committee members will likely be inducted in Cooperstown on July 21, 2024 together with any candidates elected by the BBWAA.

What makes a Hall of Fame umpire? It’s a very pertinent query on condition that each Joe West and Ed Montague are on this yr’s Contemporary Baseball Era Committee poll alongside 4 managers and two executives, all of whom have careers which might be extra simply evaluated by wins, losses, pennants, championships, and a extra subjective understanding of the context wherein they occurred. Aside from their service time and logs of postseason collection and different notable occasions, umpires don’t depart behind a lot knowledge — or they didn’t, at the least till the pitch-tracking period arrived. “A good umpire is the umpire you don’t even notice,” stated Ban Johnson, the primary president of the American League. “He’s there all afternoon, and when the game is over, you don’t even remember his name.”

Between the shortage of knowledge and a committee format that has pitted umpires towards managers, executives, and long-retired gamers, solely 10 males in blue have been elected to the Hall, together with simply two on this millennium: Doug Harvey and Hank O’Day. Harvey, whose profession spanned from 1962 to ’92, was acknowledged by SABR in 1999 because the second-best umpire in historical past behind solely Bill Klem; he was elected through a 2010 Veterans Committee poll particularly dedicated to executives and umpires. O’Day, a former main league pitcher (1884–90) whose umpiring profession spanned from 1894 to 1927 however was interrupted by transient stints as a supervisor, was elected through the 2013 Pre-Integration Era Committee poll.

No umpire has even been a candidate since regardless of a number of of the longest-lasting males in blue calling it quits, although West, the all-time chief in video games umpired, has landed on the poll at his first alternative since his 2021 retirement. That Gerry Davis, who retired in 2021 as properly and ranks fourth in video games (4,849), isn’t on the poll however West and Montague (who ranks thirteenth) are at the least signifies longevity isn’t the lone driver of induction. Here’s a fast take a look at the leaderboard for regular-season video games labored:

Ed Montague

Edward Michael Montague was born November 3, 1948 in San Francisco. His father, Edward Francis Montague (b. 1905), was an infielder who performed professionally from 1923 to ’33, with 220 video games within the majors for Cleveland unfold out from ’28 to ’32. After his taking part in days, the elder Montague spent 40 years (1942–82) as a scout for the Giants and is credited as the person who signed Willie Mays, then of the Birmingham Black Barons, in 1950. Contrary to fable, Montague didn’t uncover Mays; he was the nearer in a course of that started when Hall of Famer Carl Hubbell, then the Giants’ farm director, noticed Mays play play on the Polo Grounds in 1949.

Thanks to his father, the youthful Montague received to go to the Giants’ clubhouses at Seals Stadium and Candlestick Park, the place he’d seize leftover bats and caps from Mays and Felipe Alou to be used in his sandlot video games; when he was 9 years outdated, Mays gave him a glove. Montague attended San Francisco City College, served within the Navy, labored as a vendor at each Candlestick Park and the Oakland Coliseum, and performed semipro ball. His goals of taking part in professionally had been dashed when his father gave him the arduous reality about his capacity. “He said I might get to A ball and that’s it,” he recalled in 2011. The 22-year-old Montague as a substitute took the recommendation of his mom, who had seen an advert in The Sporting News for Barney Deary’s Umpire Development Program in Florida. “It was like $600 to go for five weeks. I figured I’d just go down to a nice vacation,” he instructed the Hall of Fame’s Bill Francis in 2021.

That was in 1971; in a category of 120 umpires, simply 5 would make the majors. Montague started his profession within the California League in 1972, and after incomes a suggestion from future Hall of Famer Jocko Conlan for his work within the Arizona Instructional League that fall, he spent the subsequent three seasons within the Pacific Coast League, with two video games within the majors in October 1974. Along the best way, working a significant league spring coaching sport with Bruce Froemming made a optimistic impression. Froemming really helpful him to Barlick, by then the NL’s supervisor of umpires.

Montague grew to become a full-time main league umpire in 1976; at 27 years outdated, he earned the nickname “Phenom” for his comparatively fast rise to the majors. He was considered as having a hard-line method and being prolific with ejections; in 1977 alone, he tossed 10 gamers and managers, although he had simply 5 over the subsequent three seasons and averaged solely about two per yr for his profession. Over time, nonetheless, he gained a status for his calm demeanor and his constant strike zone. In 1996, after the sudden, surprising demise of John McSherry on Opening Day in Cincinnati, Montague was promoted to crew chief.

Montague umpired in six World Series (1986, ’91, ’97, 2000, ’04, and ’07) and was the crew chief within the final 4 of these, tying him for second all-time with Bill Summers behind solely Klem’s 9. Klem’s 18 World Series and 103 World Series video games are each information, with Montague tied for ninth within the former class and simply outdoors the highest 10 within the latter. He labored seven LCS (NL 1979, ’87, ’92, ’96, ’99, AL 2001, and ’02) and 7 Division Series as properly (NL 1981, ’95, 2000, ’05, ’07, AL 2003, and ’04), to not point out the 2007 Game 163 tiebreaker between the Rockies and Padres to find out the Wild Card qualifier. He additionally labored 4 All-Star Games (1982, ’90 ’98, and 2004), the final three of them behind the plate.

Along the best way, Montague was readily available for some memorable moments. He was the house plate umpire when Lou Brock collected his 3,000th hit on August 13, 1979, and the primary base umpire when Pete Rose recorded his 4,192nd hit to surpass Ty Cobb for the all-time lead on September 11, 1985. That Montague’s father had performed towards Cobb (and even been spiked by him as soon as to the purpose of needing to depart a sport) made the second significantly poignant for the umpire. Years later, Montague requested Rose to autograph a baseball, then confirmed him that the opposite aspect of the ball had been signed by Cobb, a relic from the senior Montague.

Speaking of record-breakers, Montague labored the October 2001 video games wherein Barry Bonds hit homers 71, 72, and 73 to set a brand new single-season normal. He was additionally the second base umpire when Bonds hit his 715th house run on May 28, 2006 to go Babe Ruth and transfer into second place on the all-time record.

Montague was the proper discipline umpire for Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, when Mookie Wilson‘s groundball snuck through Bill Buckner’s legs, permitting Ray Knight to attain the successful run.

“Unfortunately, the ball was hit down to Billy. I think it would’ve been a close play anyway,” stated Montague in 2019, on the event of Buckner’s passing. “I think it would’ve been a race to the bag with Mookie Wilson, so I think Billy was trying to peek and cheat a little bit so he could get over there.”

As the Mets celebrated, Montague retrieved the ball and marked it with a tiny X close to the seam. He quickly gave it to Mets touring secretary Arthur Richman, who later offered it at public sale to actor Charlie Sheen.

Montague’s different World Series had been hardly much less memorable. He was the house plate umpire in Game 6 of the 1991 World Series, when the Twins’ Kirby Puckett hit a walk-off homer to pressure Game 7 towards the Cardinals. He was at house for Game 7 of the 1997 World Series, when the Marlins’ Edgar Renteria drove in Craig Counsell with the successful run within the eleventh inning. “It’s an out-of-body experience when you’re working those games,” he instructed the San Francisco Chronicle in 2003. He umpired the 2000 Subway Series between the Yankees and Mets and Boston’s World Series wins over the Cardinals in ’04 and the Rockies in ’07.

Injuries restricted Montague to only 23 video games in 2009. He retired after the season, at which level his 4,369 video games ranked eighth. In 2011, he appeared within the film adaptation of Michael Lewis’ Moneyball. That similar yr, he grew to become an umpire supervisor for Major League Baseball. He’s at present an umpire observer for the Bay Area, submitting reviews recurrently from Oracle Park.

For the entire massive occasions wherein Montague was concerned, he usually shunned the highlight. “I’d just as soon be anonymous forever,” he stated in 2003, echoing Johnson from roughly a century earlier. “I’m part of the game, but I’m not.”

Joe West

Where Montague was content material to mix into the surroundings, West so typically wound up because the focal point, although not all the time in the very best of the way. From his bit half in The Naked Gun in 1988 (skip to 2:08 within the scene beneath in case you’re in a rush) to his secondary profession as a rustic music singer-songwriter — one which gave him the nickname “Cowboy Joe” and resulted in two albums, enabling him to rub shoulders with the likes of Merle Haggard and Mickey Gilley and seem on the Grand Ole Opry — he attained a stage of celeb not like any of his cohorts. Combine all that along with his record-setting longevity and he’s simply probably the most well-known umpire of his time… and probably the most notorious as properly, because of the quite a few controversies wherein he grew to become embroiled.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn4LQyKUQMk

West considered himself as a guardian of the sport. A July 24, 2017 profile by Sports Illustrated’s Michael Rosenberg bore the title, “The Last Cowboy: Joe West Is On A Quest To Preserve The Sanctity Of Umpiring.” A 2020 characteristic by ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian was titled, “MLB umpire Joe West has never missed a call. Just ask him.” From the latter:

“I say this to every young umpire: As an umpire, you have three responsibilities. First is to the game of baseball. Second is to your profession. Third, make a call that is morally honest. If you do everything in that order, nothing you do will be wrong.”

…”I can’t put you in jail. But I can kick you out of the sport. And that’s a part of the material of baseball. You have sure guidelines and rules that it’s important to go by. But to be vindictive, since you didn’t like what someone did, that’s being dishonest to the sport.”

West was well-known for mandating that gamers greet him earlier than their first plate look, a nice little bit of decorum amid the warmth of competitors, and was broadly considered as top-of-the-line umpires when it got here to data of the foundations. But whereas he claimed to have a thick pores and skin, he sued Paul LoDuca for defamation in 2019 over the variety of instances the umpire ejected the previous catcher (for which he was awarded $500,000 in damages in 2021), and earlier this yr was banned from modifying his personal Wikipedia web page, the place he took challenge with the best way sure occasions in his profession had been characterised (he even appeared on an Effectively Wild podcast).

Joseph Henry West was born on born October 31, 1952 in Asheville, North Carolina however grew up 65 miles south in Greenville. At J.H. Rose High School, he performed baseball, soccer and basketball; he was a catcher on the diamond however pursued soccer through a scholarship after he graduated. After spending a yr taking part in security at East Carolina University, he transferred to Elon College, the place he quarterbacked the varsity to 3 straight Carolinas Conference championships from 1971 to ’73, setting quite a few faculty passing information alongside the best way and main his crew all the best way to the NAIA Division I title sport in his senior yr.

West’s duties with spring soccer ended his baseball taking part in profession, however whereas umpiring native video games as a school scholar, he met Carolina League umpire supervisor Malcolm Sykes, who really helpful that he attend an umpire coaching faculty. He did so in 1974, then started his skilled profession that yr within the Western Carolinas League. He climbed shortly, passing by way of the Carolina League, the Southern League, and the American Association. He debuted within the majors on September 14, 1976, a couple of month and a half shy of his twenty fourth birthday; he labored eight video games that month, then 45 video games as a fill-in umpire the next season. In 1978, the 25-year-old West grew to become a full-time National League umpire.

He shortly received his style of historical past. On June 30 of that season, he was the house plate umpire when Willie McCovey hit his five hundredth house run. He was additionally working the plate on July 25, when Rose collected a success in his thirty eighth consecutive sport, breaking the trendy NL file set by Tommy Holmes (he would finally tie Willie Keeler‘s all-time NL record of 44 games, set in 1897). West was the first base umpire for Nolan Ryan’s record-breaking fifth no-hitter, for the Astros towards the Dodgers on September 26, 1981. He was additionally the primary base umpire when Orel Hershiser set the file for consecutive scoreless innings on September 28, 1988 (some sources say he was behind the plate, however not Retrosheet or Baseball Reference).

According to Retrosheet, West was behind the plate for just one no-hitter, that of Clay Buchholz for the Red Sox on September 1, 2007, within the 23-year-old righty’s second main league sport. He was a part of the crew for others, together with these of Kent Mercker (April 8, 1994, at second base) and Félix Hernández (an ideal sport on August 15, 2012, at first base).

A pair weeks after Ryan’s no-hitter, West grew to become the youngest NL umpire to work a National League Championship Series at age 28, the primary of 10 LCS that he labored (NL 1986, ’88, ’93, ’96, AL 2003, ’04, ’13, ’14, and ’18). In Game 3 of that collection, he was the house plate umpire whom Mets supervisor Davey Johnson alerted to examine the glove of Dodgers reliever Jay Howell for a overseas substance. The umpires discovered pine tar, although it was crew chief Harry Wendelstedt who ejected Howell, who was suspended for 2 video games.

West was the left discipline umpire when Aaron Boone hit his pennant-winning homer off Tim Wakefield for the Yankees in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS and behind house plate for Game 6 of the next yr’s ALCS, which featured Curt Schilling‘s bloody sock and Alex Rodriguez‘s slap of Bronson Arroyo’s glove. Perhaps his most impactful second within the postseason got here in 2018, whereas working because the crew chief and proper discipline umpire for Game 4 of the ALCS between the Astros — then the defending champions — and Red Sox. With Houston trailing 2–0 within the backside of the primary inning, Jose Altuve hit an obvious game-tying homer, however West dominated {that a} fan had interfered with Mookie Betts on the fence, hitting the proper fielder’s glove as he tried to catch the ball on the wall. Altuve was referred to as out, replay upheld the decision, and the Astros went on to lose each the sport and the collection.

West labored six World Series (1992, ’97, 2005, ’09, ’12, and ’16). On October 20, 1992, he was the house plate umpire for the primary World Series sport performed outdoors the United States, at Toronto’s Skydome. He additionally labored eight Division Series (NL 1995, 2011, ’12, AL 2002, ’05, ’08, ’09, ’16). His complete of 132 postseason video games is tied with Ted Barrett for second behind Gerry Davis’ 151; as with gamers and managers, a profession within the Wild Card period is essential to excessive placement on such counts.

Along with the highlights got here the controversies, seemingly greater than some other umpire. In 1983, Braves supervisor Joe Torre adopted West to the walkway of the umpires’ dressing room to dispute a advantageous assessed towards Bob Watson for protesting a game-ending referred to as strike. West shoved Torre and was suspended for 3 days and fined $500 by NL president Charles Feeney. It was believed to be the primary in-season suspension of an umpire in main league historical past (lo and behold, Torre will likely be one of many Hall of Famers sitting on the 16-member committee to contemplate West’s case and people of the opposite seven candidates this Sunday).

It wasn’t West’s final suspension. On September 14, 2014, he ejected the Nationals’ Jonathan Papelbon for grabbing his crotch in response to boos after blowing a three-run lead. Papelbon received in West’s face, and the umpire responded by grabbing him by the jersey and pushing him away. MLB suspended Papelbon for seven video games and West for one for initiating contact.

West was suspended but once more in 2017, when he was given a three-game ban for inappropriate feedback about Adrián Beltré. In response to a query from USA Today’s Bob Nightengale for a bit commemorating West’s 5,000th sport, the umpire referred to as Beltré the most important complainer within the majors. “I told him, ‘You may be a great ballplayer, but you’re the worst umpire in the league. You stink,” he stated to Nightengale. Though West later clarified that he and Beltré had been on pleasant phrases, MLB suspended him in response to an “appearance of lack of impartiality,” in accordance with a letter the league despatched to the World Umpires Association, the umps’ union.

In 1990, West and Richie Phillips, the top of the WUA’s predecessor, the Major League Umpires Association, clashed with National League president Bill White over West’s dealing with of an ejection of the Phillies’ Von Hayes — apparently over a comment the participant made about one other umpire. “In my meeting with Joe West yesterday, I told him that since he has been involved in a number of on-field incidents with players, he is no longer to physically touch a player,” White stated in an announcement.

In 1999, West was one in every of 57 members of the Phillips-led union who resigned en masse in an try and pressure the AL and NL (which had separate swimming pools of umpires on the time) to barter a brand new labor settlement beginning in 2000. The tactic backfired, because the league accepted the resignations even after lots of the umpires tried to rescind them. West was one in every of 22 whose resignation was accepted; the NL determined which of them to simply accept primarily based on efficiency requirements. The union filed costs with the National Labor Relations Board, and after arbitration and appeals, some umpires acquired settlements and others had been rehired. West was one in every of 9 rehired primarily based on arbitrator Alan Symonnette’s ruling in May 2001. “I feel like a plane went down with a lot of my friends,” he stated of the 13 not rehired on the time, 10 of whom by no means umpired once more. He missed the entire 2000 and ’01 seasons and was one in every of 5 umpires who shared in a $3.1 million settlement for again pay and advantages. In 2009, he was elected the president of the WUA, a capability wherein he served till ’18 and oversaw the negotiations of two labor offers. That similar yr, the WUA rebranded itself because the Major League Baseball Umpires Association.

The 2010 season might have been peak West when it got here to controversies. That April, he publicly blasted the Yankees and Red Sox for his or her sluggish tempo of play in a season-opening collection — a case wherein the info and public opinion had been on his aspect. “They’re two of the best teams in baseball. Why are they playing the slowest?” he instructed the Bergen Record. “The players aren’t working with us. This is embarrassing — a disgrace to baseball.” MLB was none too pleased even earlier than West dredged up that controversy within the wake of his dealing with of two balk calls and the following ejections of White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle and supervisor Ozzie Guillen in late May.

Both Guillen and Buehrle made feedback within the aftermath that also resonate. Said the supervisor, “[S]ometimes he thinks people pay to watch him umpire,” a remark that has come to outline West within the eyes of some, although Guillen additionally added, “He’s the type of guy that wants to control the game, and to me is one of the best umpires in the game, no doubt.” Said the pitcher, “I think he’s too worried about promoting his CD, and I think he likes seeing his name in the papers a little bit too much instead of worrying about the rules.” Ouch. Between West’s dealing with of the scenario and his having a public relations agent (!) inform the media he was out there to revisit his pace-of-play feedback, MLB determined to name him him to the carpet, fining him an undisclosed quantity.

Guillen’s feedback specifically encapsulate the best way West was considered as a polarizing determine throughout the sport. In participant polls by Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine, he typically made the lists of each the very best and worst umpires. In a 2010 ESPN ballot, he completed second to CB Bucknor for worst umpire and first when it got here to having the quickest set off to eject gamers. For what it’s price, West’s 196 ejections rank fourth all-time, 167 fewer than Klem’s file complete.

By the time of that 2010 ballot, the introduction of pitch monitoring gave rise to analyses of umpires’ accuracy in calling balls and strikes. A 2007 Hardball Times examine primarily based on the restricted Pitch f/x knowledge from that yr discovered him to have “the fewest number of extra balls and strikes… a sign of consistency.” The Statcast period was much less form to West, tracing his decline in his advancing years. Via the evaluation by Umpire Scorecards, West’s 90.9% accuracy at calling balls and strikes nonetheless ranks because the third-lowest for any umpire with at the least 100 video games behind the plate since 2015; lots of the umpires with fewer video games had been additionally close to the top of their careers. West’s inaccuracy boils all the way down to being about two calls beneath common per sport; his -424.5 right calls above anticipated nonetheless ranks second, even two seasons after his retirement.

Still, as he climbed the longevity ladder, West acquired gestures of respect and waves of publicity that resulted in profiles such because the aforementioned ones by Rosenberg and Kurkjian; whoever was doing PR for him definitely earned their preserve. Shortly after he umpired his 5,000th sport on June 19, 2017, he served as the house plate umpire of the All-Star Game (his second time doing so). When Nelson Cruz got here to the plate within the sixth inning, he had NL catcher Yadier Molina {photograph} him with West. “He’s a legend,” Cruz stated afterwards. “I think that’s the only chance you have to take a picture with Joe West.”

On August 15, 2018, West handed Froemming for second on the record of video games umpired. On May 25, 2021, he overtook Klem along with his 5,376th sport. He retired on the finish of that season, ending with a complete of 5,460 video games, a file which will by no means be damaged.

So, are Montague and West worthy of the Hall of Fame? Honestly, even after doing all of this analysis — the primary time I’ve ever written about umpires at size — I’m not fully certain. My Hall of Fame work has all the time been pushed by comparative evaluation, and umps simply don’t give us an entire lot to work with in that sense, at the least not the best way that the info at FanGraphs, Baseball Reference, Statcast and different websites do for gamers.

My hunch is that each in all probability belong in Cooperstown, warts and all. But on a poll the place I’m significantly eager on the pioneering work of player-turned-broadcaster-turned-executive Bill White and the comparative success of supervisor Jim Leyland and in addition intrigued by the breadth of govt Hank Peters’ function in constructing powerhouse groups, I’m undecided I’d place both umpire on my three-slot poll. I think West’s standing will in all probability end in his election nonetheless, and I wouldn’t be shocked if Montague is honored as properly.