Umpire Joe West Wins Defamation - Damages Future Card Show Earnings

[Misunderestimated]

Adam's right -- Its clearly defamation ...... The damages were interesting to me. He is a presumptive HOF Umpire based on breaking Klem's record. The idea that he's a "bad Ump" is probably not part of that -- the fact that he umpired so many games seemingly makes him HOF worthy. That's debatable in theory but I'm not so sure that the "quality" of his umpiring (or lack thereof) will outweigh its quantity.
Personally, I don't feel remotely fit to judge the quality of his umpiring. He was/is clearly respected by his peers for his leadership and he's umped post-seasons and that's worth something. Being a bit of showboat - "Cowboy Joy" - probably helps more than it hurts. The one thing that would diminish any umpire's reputation more than anything else is what Lo Duca accused him of -- corruption. $500,000 is a lot of money but not to Lo Duca. I'm guesstimating that he cleared around $40,000,000 is salary in his career (baseball-reference is incomplete in his salary records)......