St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Shildt, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and home plate umpire Joe West. (Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports)
It only took a couple of innings in the NL Wild Card between the Cardinals and the Dodgers for home plate umpire Joe West to start trending.
The moment MLB announced Joe West as the umpire for the NL Wild Card game on Wednesday night, you might have guessed he’d be trending before long.
True to form, West was the talk of Twitter even before making any truly egregious errors.
Before Joe West retires, he’s umping the NL Wild Card
It seemed Twitter was holding West’s reputation against him more than anything in the early going at Dodger Stadium.
West has earned that reputation for good reason, so it’s MLB’s problem putting him in charge of such a big game more than anything. Fans were bound to be skeptical.
Some people were willing to give West some credit for his work through the first three innings at least.
Give it some time, West is likely to do something that irritates Dodgers fans or Cardinals fans or both. Everyone should just be crossing their fingers and hoping the game doesn’t come down to one of his decisions at home plate.