What has former umpire Joe West been up to in retirement? Besides starting his own podcast, Cowboy Joe has apparently been making edits to his Wikipedia page, so many, in fact, that admins booted him from the server.
This all started when West, who apparently goes by the online moniker “Crewchief22,” disputed a section in his bio about an altercation he had with Braves manager Joe Torre in 1983, suggesting heavy edits that were ultimately rejected. In explaining their decision, Wikipedia argued West’s contributions weren’t “constructive,” later flagging him for a “conflict of interest” upon learning his identity. When West threatened legal action, Wikipedia blocked him indefinitely, effectively banning him from the site.
West, whose Wikipedia policing was first discovered by Reddit user NewYorkMetsalhead, defended himself on a recent podcast appearance, sitting down to share his side of the story with Ben Lindbergh. “I hadn’t looked at Wikipedia in probably 10 years. So I went to do a speech in Southern California and the guy said some stuff introducing me that didn’t make sense. It took me a while to figure out where he got the information,” West revealed on Thursday’s episode of Effectively Wild. “I read the Wikipedia story and the thing that jumped out at me was where it said something about me and Joe Torre having a fight. That didn’t happen.”
West, who called a record 5,460 games over his 43 years in MLB, felt the event was mischaracterized on his Wikipedia entry, bothering him enough to edit it himself. “Joe Torre followed Scott Grinder off the field in Atlanta after a game-ending call. You got to realize, we got to go out down the first base line past the dugout. And when Torre followed us into this walkway, I turned around and pushed him and said, ‘You don’t belong here.’ And he realized he didn’t belong there, so he immediately left,” said West, downplaying his confrontation with Torre. “Didn’t argue, didn’t do nothing. The only thing he did do was go tell tell the press that I pushed him. The press immediately came to my locker and said, ‘Joe Torre said that you pushed him.’ I most certainly did. I told him he didn’t belong there. And that was it.”
West had other gripes—he wanted recognition for being behind home plate when Orel Hershiser set the major-league record for consecutive scoreless innings—but the Torre incident was what really got under his skin, prompting his recent clash with Wikipedia. “You’ve read it, right? None of that happened. We didn’t yell at each other. I got suspended for three days with pay because [they] thought I shouldn’t have put my hands on him,” said West, who retired after the 2021 season. “Torre got fined. And neither one of us wanted the other one to get penalized. I wasn’t mad at Joe. Joe wasn’t mad at me. In fact, Joe was going after the other umpire.”
West must have really wanted to get this off his chest, jeopardizing his Wikipedia editing privileges to set the record straight. Well, mission accomplished, Joe. You've been heard.
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