Joe West emerged from retirement to share an all-time terrible Braves take

Other than Angel Hernandez who was a piece of work in his own right, the name that immediately pops into most baseball fans' heads when bad umpiring comes up is the recently retired Joe West. While some see West as a relic of a forgotten era who championed umpires through some difficult times, most see him as a hot-head that sought confrontation and to make the game about him while failing to acknowledge his own shortcomings. Unfortunately, retirement hasn't stopped West from doing something that will tick off a lot of Atlanta Braves fans.

Given how long West umpired, there is obviously a rich history between himself and the Braves. West famously threw AJ Pierzynski out of a spring training game when West was in rare (some would say midseason) form with his "strike zone". If there was a Braves star that played the last 20+ years, they probably have a story about West that only he would find flattering.

Even though he is retired, West still feels like he needs to weigh in with his thought and The Eddie Mata show gave him a platform to do so recently. Mata decided to ask West about the dominant Braves pitching staffs of the 1990's and why they were able to get calls off the plate. West's explanation...shouldn't sit well with Braves fans to put it mildly.

Joe West downplayed Braves' Hall of Fame pitching staffs as due to young umpires being scared

First, the idea that West is bagging on any other umpires' expanded strike zones is laughable. West famously was heavily slanted in favor of hitters with his calls over the course of his career, so of course he is going to think that others' zones were too big. It is important to know that this was during a bit of a tough time with umpiring as there was an umpiring strike that caused a lot of turnover and the technology didn't exist to evaluate umpires consistently the way we do now. To put it another way, this was the same era when Eric Gregg was somehow gainfully employed as an umpire and he made any pitcher look like Greg Maddux.

However, West seemed to think that it wasn't the skill of pitchers like Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz in hitting those close spots, but instead young umpires that didn't want the Braves' bench to yell at them. Yes, Joe...three Hall of Fame pitchers clearly couldn't have been right and the other umpires (not him, of course) simply needed to act tougher. For a guy that demanded he be greeted at home plate by hitters and talked at length about his strike zones being consistent even if they were bad, that he took issue with any pitcher's reputation influencing calls is pretty unbelievable.

Ultimately, the game is better without guys like West who want to be stars of the show in their own world umpiring anymore. The ABS challenge system is coming and that should blunt the impact that the worst umpires have on games behind the plate going forward. The goal should be about getting calls right, not propping up the egos of what are ultimately imperfect humans. Unfortunately, retirement and technology don't seem able to stop West from getting another call wrong.