Is Joe West Editing Wikipedia? Former Controversial Umpire Allegedly Tried Changing Unfavorable Aspects of His Page
It would appear that Joe West has turned his retirement into a career in writing and editing. However, Wikipedia does not seem to appreciate this piece of writing.
A commenter on Reddit brought to attention a series of alterations made to Joe West’s Wikipedia page by an account known as “Crewchief22,” which ended with the user signing off as Joe West. Crewchief22 threatened to take legal action after many revisions were made to the edits by Wikipedia.
West sported the number 22 on his right sleeve throughout the entirety of his professional career.
On Wikipedia, under the user contributions page for Crewchief22, the account is identified as having first made revisions on January 31, when the user “fixed the list that were in the incident with Joe Torre,” according to the description of the page.
It seems that the mention of a fine paid by West in connection with an incident that occurred in 1983 and had him allegedly pushing Braves manager Joe Torre was removed by the edit. At the time, West was given a $500 fine in addition to a suspension for three games.
It was then announced that although West’s suspension had been upheld, the fine against him had been reduced to $300.
According to the revision that was made by the account, West was never fined for the incident, although Torre was penalized for it. In addition, the statement that it was “the first instance of an umpire being suspended during a baseball season in decades” was taken out of the article.
The account made one more change, this time changing “has patents on the West Vest” to “held patents on the West Vest,” as well as modifying the end of a sentence. During the same editing session, he removed the term “controversial” from a passage that described how White Sox announcer Hawk Harrelson had called him out.
During his acceptance speech for the Ford Frick Award, Joe West added another sentence about a quote from Harrelson about Joe West’s role as an umpire.
He said, “There are two things you have to do to be a major league player: ‘Catch the ball and don’t mess with Joe West.'” Harrelson had said the quote. All of the changes that had been made to that section were rolled back to their initial form.
Crewchief22 went in and undid the majority of the changes it had made to the post on February 8 after Wikipedia reverted it to its initial state on February 3. This time, editing the sections on Wikipedia just took 10 minutes of time due to the site’s improved efficiency.
A note was left on February 8 after an edit was made to one of Crewchief22’s posts indicating that the edit “did not appear to be productive” and that the user needed to examine Wikipedia’s guidelines.
The message was in response to an edit that had been made the previous day. In a message that was signed off as being sent by Joe West, Crewchief22 stated that it was “weary of correcting your lies” and demanded that the company “either reinstate what I wrote or wipe the entire page.”
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Table of Contents
Joe West: Predictions
“I made some helpful corrections to the misinformation that was on this page, like as the fact that Joe Torre and West never engaged in a pushing match… Because I was there, I ought to know, “the writer was the user. “Please take it down entirely if you’re not going to respect my privacy and leave my page alone.
It is not necessary for anyone to know anything about me, and it is most certainly not necessary for anyone to read anything about me that are not accurate.”
However, it was not the end of the story. Later on, Crewchief22 made a request for the mailing address of the account that had sent the modification message, stating that he wanted his attorney to be able to include the recipient in the case.
Another message was left for Crewchief22, in which it was pointed out that the site has criteria on conflicts of interest, and it was stated that members of Wikipedia are not permitted to modify pages that are about themselves or their families.
It was Crewchief22’s repeated threat to have their attorney “file charges against Wikipedia” that led to the account being disabled in the first place. A new message was posted, instructing the account to confirm that it is indeed West in order to guarantee that no one is posting fake information under his name.
The note further instructed the account to stop making threats of legal action and to withdraw any legal threats that have been made in the past.
The good news is that despite the devil’s quick work, baseball writers are even quicker. To address the situation, West made an appearance on the “Effectively Wild” podcast with Meg Rowley and Ben Lindbergh, during which he admitted that he was the one responsible for making the alterations.
West began by explaining, “I’ll tell you how this came about.” “I hadn’t been on Wikipedia in what felt like a decade at least. And then I went to give a speech in Southern California, where the person introducing me said things about myself that were incoherent… I checked out the article on Wikipedia.
And the thing that kind of leapt out at me was where it stated something about Joe Torre and I having a fight. That was the thing that kind of jumped out at me. That didn’t happen.”
When Lindbergh prodded him for further information, he continued to narrate the narrative.
“After an official decision ended the game in Atlanta, Joe Torre walked off the field with Scott Grinder.
And as he entered the walkway at the previous iteration of Fulton County Stadium, you have to understand that we have to exit the field at the first-base line and go past the dugout. I thus turned around and pushed Torre as he followed us into this walkway.
Said to the individual, “you do not belong here.” And it dawned on him that he was out of place there. So he left right away, didn’t dispute or do anything else, the only thing he did was go to the press and say that I shoved him.
Other than that, he didn’t do anything else. Almost quickly, a member of the press approached my locker and stated, “You shoved him.” I responded by saying, “I very certainly did, and I informed him that he did not belong there.””
It is important to note that in 2019, West filed a defamation lawsuit against former Major League Baseball player Paul Lo Duca.
This came after Lo Duca claimed on a podcast that West’s former New York Mets teammate Billy Wagner bribed West into giving him a bigger strike zone by allowing West to use Wagner’s 1957 vintage Chevrolet car as payment. West sued Lo Duca for defamation. West was granted $500,000 as a result of his victory in that litigation.
Given the present blocking of the account and the actions that need to be taken to get the ban lifted, it is highly improbable that Crewchief22 will make any more contributions to Wikipedia in the near future. However, if it does prove out that this is genuinely West, he may discover that he enjoys retirement more doing other things than getting into a fight about revisions on Wikipedia.
Joe West: Who Is He?
Joseph Henry West, an American who formerly worked as a baseball umpire and was given the nicknames “Cowboy Joe” and “Country Joe,” was born on October 31, 1952. He began his career in Major League Baseball (MLB) in 1979 and remained there until 2021, during which time he officiated a record 43 seasons and 5,460 games.
Although he was born in Asheville, North Carolina, he spent his childhood in Greenville. He attended East Carolina University (ECU) and Elon College to play football. In 1976, West became an umpire for the National League (NL), and in 1978, he was promoted to a full-time position on the NL staff.
He was on the field when Willie McCovey hit his 500th career home run, and he was involved in a pushing incident in 1983 with manager Joe Torre when he was only a young umpire. Nolan Ryan’s fifth career no-hitter was one of the games he worked as an umpire.
West was one of the many Major League Umpires Association officials who left their jobs in 1999 but then returned after being rehired in 2002. For the World Series in 2005, he was the crew leader, and in 2009, he worked as an umpire during the World Baseball Classic. On May 25, 2021, West officiated his 5,376th game, so surpassing Bill Klem’s previous all-time record.
Joe West: Bio
Major League Baseball umpire who officiated in five World Series between 1992 and 2012. 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..
Joe West: Ethnicity
He was born and raised in the small city of Asheville, North Carolina.
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.
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Quick Facts
| First Name | Joe |
| Last Name | West |
| Profession | Umpire |
| Age | 70 years old |
| Birth Sign | Scorpio |
| Birth Date | October 31, 1952 |
| Birth Place | Asheville, |
