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Joseph Henry West (born October 31, 1952), nicknamed "Cowboy Joe" or "Country Joe," is an American professional baseball umpire in Major League Baseball (MLB). Born in Asheville, North Carolina, he grew up in Greenville and played football at East Carolina University (ECU) and Elon College. West entered the National League as an umpire in 1976; he joined the NL staff full time in 1978. West has worn uniform number 22 throughout his career. As a young umpire, West worked Nolan Ryan's fifth career no-hitter, was on the field for Willie McCovey's 500th home run and was involved in a 1983 pushing incident with manager Joe Torre. A few years later, West was the home plate umpire during the 1988 playoff game in which pitcher Jay Howell was ejected for having pine tar on his glove. In 1990, he threw pitcher Dennis Cook to the ground while attempting to break up a fight. West resigned during the 1999 Major League Umpires Association mass resignation, but was rehired in 2002. Since then, he has umpired throughout MLB. In a 2004 playoff game between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, West's crew made a controversial decision that necessitated police presence to calm the crowd. He served as crew chief for the 2005 World Series. In 2010, West attracted media attention after he publicly complained about the slow pace of a game between the Red Sox and Yankees. He also worked the game that year in which Albert Pujols hit his 400th career home run. West has worked several no-hitters, including a 2012 perfect game by Félix Hernández. As of 2015, West has the longest tenure of any MLB umpire. West has appeared in five World Series, two All-Star Games, nine League Championship Series (LCS), seven League Division Series (LDS) and two Wild Card Games. West is president of the World Umpires Association (WUA). As the organization's president, West helped negotiate the largest umpiring contract in baseball history. He works with a sporting goods company to design and patent umpiring equipment endorsed by MLB. West is also a singer and songwriter, and has released two country music albums. He had a small acting role in the comedy film ''The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!'' and a cameo appearance in the television crime drama ''The Oldest Rookie.'' He plays golf on the Celebrity Players Tour. ==Early life== West was born in Asheville, North Carolina in 1952. He grew up in Greenville, North Carolina, where he played youth baseball and football. He graduated from Rose High School in Greenville. West played safety on the freshman football team at East Carolina University (ECU) in 1970 and he was a quarterback for Elon College (now Elon University) from 1971 to 1973.〔 He intended to play his college football career at ECU, but head coach Mike McGee resigned after his freshman year, prompting West's transfer.〔 While in college, West hoped to play both baseball and football. However, spring practice for football interfered with West's ability to be on the baseball team as well. He concentrated on football and umpired high school baseball games on the side. In his three seasons at Elon, West was the starting quarterback and the team won three conference championships. He was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) on the 1973 team that lost the Division I National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics title game to Abilene Christian; the Abilene Christian team was led by future professional football players Clint Longley and Wilbert Montgomery. West left Elon holding three passing records that were not broken for 20 years, and was inducted into the Elon Sports Hall of Fame in 1986, in the same class as former North Carolina State women's basketball coach Kay Yow.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher =MLB.com )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Joe West (umpire)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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