| Joe West |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT JOE WEST | |
| 1952 births | |
| living people | |
| baseball umpires | |
| people from asheville, north carolina | |
| elon university alumni | |
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BACKGROUND Like fellow umpire Ron Luciano , West played Collegiate Football . He played at East Carolina University as a freshman and was a three-year starting Quarterback at Elon College , winning the MVP award in 1973 there when Elon was ranked number two in NAIA Division I. He still holds three passing records and was inducted into the Elon College Sports Hall of Fame. Starting in minor league umpiring, West worked in the Western Carolinas League (1974; inducted into the Western Carolina League Hall Of Fame in 2002), Carolina League (1975), Florida Instructional League (1974-1976), Southern League (1975-76), American Association (1976-77), and Puerto Rican Winter League (1977). When he broke into major league umpiring on September 13 , 1976 , he was only 23. Five years later, West worked in the 1981 NLCS at the age of 28, the youngest umpire to ever work in the NLCS . He worked in several after that, and also two World Series. During the 1999 Season , West retired as part of a controversial union strategy which backfired; however, he was rehired in February 2002 . West is slightly famous outside of umpiring as a singer/songwriter and has performed with such artists as Merle Haggard , Bonnie Owens, Bobby Mackey, Box Car Willie , Mickey Gilley , T.G. Sheppard , Charlie McCoy and the Hee Haw Band, and others. His band is known as The Texas Cookin' Band. West said, "I don't want to quit umpiring, which has probably helped my music. If I were just a new singer, nobody'd listen. But "Joe West, NL umpire," that gets their attention." West appeared in one of '' The Naked Gun '' movies as an umpire also. He also designed and patented today's most commonly used chest protector, which is often referred to as the "West Vest." It is used by 85 percent of umpires. CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
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