Nobody Knows How To Deal With Baseball Managers In Your Face Like Joe West Does

On today's Pardon My Take... JOE WEST! The longtime MLB umpire joined Mr. Cat and Mr. Commenter on today's show to discuss his career, his music albums, some of his best stories in the league, notable calls he has made, and much more. If you know one thing about baseball managers, it's that they like to get very, very close to umpires when they believe they just witnessed a missed call. How did someone like Joe West approach that unique dynamic? He gave us his thoughts on today's show:

Mr. Cat: What would happen when a manager would get right in your face? Was it like... how would that go in your head where it's like, "We got to deescalate this, but I'm also not going to just back down."

Joe West: We,, and that's another thing, you know, when you're in a position of authority and you have to realize it in that position, it's a delicate point because you cannot be overbearing, and you cannot escalate the fight, or the argument, or whatever. And there have been times when you have to kick somebody out, and they don't want to go. And then there will be times when they want to get kicked out. And you've got to decide, "Was this a good move to kick him out, and give him his way, or do I leave him in the game?"

Joe West: I mean, I can remember Eric Gregg and Larry Bowa. Bowa was trying to get kicked out because it's 100 degrees, and they're playing on Astroturf. And Eric kept looking at him and I said, "I'm no kicking you out, you can do whatever you want, you can set my uniform on fire. But if I got to stay, you got to stay, you know?" So, but handling situations is probably the hardest part of the game.

Joe West has ejected 196.5 people in his career. The half could be explained in this Twitter thread of all Joe West ejections. What a fascinating thing to read. 

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This was a very unique interview on today's PMT. Highly recommend!