Major League Baseball umpire Joe West says Paul Lo Duca was way off base when the catcher-turned-podcaster claimed on air that a teammate bribed the veteran ump — with a classic Chevy.
West filed a defamation lawsuit against Lo Duca Tuesday over comments the former Los Angeles Dodger made on “The Favorites Podcast” on April 18.
The four-time All-Star catcher, who is now an MLB and horse-racing analyst, recalled a game against the Phillies in 2006 or 2007, when he was catching for Mets pitcher Billy Wagner.
Wagner, Lo Duca claimed, used his 1957 Chevy to curry favor with — and gain a bigger strike zone from — the surly West.
“He literally throws 10 pitches and strikes out three guys; Joe rings up all three guys; eight out of the nine pitches were at least 3 to 4 inches inside, not even close. Guys were throwing bats and everything, Joe walks off the field,” Lo Duca said on the podcast. “We get back into the clubhouse, and I’m like, ‘What the f–k just happened just right now?’
“And Wagner just winks at me, I’m like, ‘What’s the secret?’ He’s like, ‘Eh, Joe loves antique cars, so every time he comes in town, I lend him my ‘57 Chevy so he can drive it around, so then he opens up the strike zone for me.’”
Lo Duca, who spent two seasons with the Mets in ’06 and ’07, also claimed that of the 15 games he’d been thrown out of in his career, eight or nine of them were by West.
“I’m like, this guy has been throwing me out for the last 10 years of my life and all I needed to do was rent him a ’57 Chevy?” Lo Duca cracked on the podcast.
West slammed Lo Duca’s allegations, saying in his suit that he only umped a game between the Phillies and Mets at home plate once in 2006 and 2007 — and that was when Wagner wasn’t on the mound.
“At no time did Billy Wagner lend Joe West any car of any kind,” the complaint says. “Joe West never ‘opened up the strike zone’ for Billy Wagner in exchange for the use of a car or any other favor.”
West also alleged Lo Duca was ejected eight times in his MLB career — and only once by him.
He accused Lo Duca of knowingly making false statements on the air, which “had the effect of defaming and disparaging the Plaintiff in his professional capacity.”
Lo Duca didn’t return a message, nor did The Action Network Inc., which produces the podcast. Wagner couldn’t be reached.
West, who’s umped more than 5,000 games since his career started in 1976, was listed as the second-highest-paid MLB umpire by the Gazette Review, which said umps can make more than $300,000 a year.
Raised in Greenville, North Carolina, he’s best known as “Cowboy Joe” or “Country Joe” for his Southern accent.
“Joe West has been a long-tenured umpire that is highly admired in the game and has been called in the past one of the most influential people in baseball,” said West’s lawyer Kevin Murphy.
“He treasures and protects his integrity and the type of comments that Lo Duca made should not be permitted without being held responsible for it and that is what we are intending to do. We are attempting to hold him accountable for the categorically false comments he made.”
