When you think of the baseball podcast world, it seems like there’s a voice missing, doesn’t it? Like someone you used to know, someone who used to be a constant presence in the baseball side of your life is just gone? Like, sure, you can go back and hear this voice you want to hear, but it’ll be about events in the past, not the present? Well, folks, that voice is back.
I am referring, of course, to Joe West.
Joe West, retired umpire extraordinaire, is going to have his own podcast.
This couldn’t be a better match of man and format, if we’re being honest. Are there some good podcasts? Sure, but on the whole, podcasts are for the lowest of the low, the real scum of the Earth. They are a place for people who aren’t as smart as they think to ignore all evidence contrary to their beliefs, give absolutely ludicrous opinions with steely eyed conviction, and act aggrieved that they aren’t getting the respect they think they’re entitled to.
In other words, Joe West in a nutshell.
Will this be a good podcast? My friends, it will not. But will it be worth listening to once or twice just to hear what kind of crazy shenanigans Joe and his co—hosts get into? Again, of course not. That’s exactly the kind of thinking that leads certain people to command audiences that are outsized compared to the person’s interest in responsible messaging.
What I’m trying to say here is that I expect The Joe West Podcast to be a massive success, leading the Cowboy to branch out into other avenues of podcasting, like politics or epidemiology, just as a couple of possibilities off the top of my head.
The description of the Joe West Podcast makes it seem like it will mostly focus on stories from his time in baseball. And while that’s fine, I would also like to hear his takes on current events in baseball. How mad does the clamor for an automated strike zone make him? What does he think of uppity players showing up the good men in blue just trying to call the game the right way? I want these things on the podcast.
I want these things on the podcast because I will not be listening, for the record. I always root for media I don’t consume to be as excruciatingly awful as possible. I’m kind of a dick that way.
So what’s the takeaway from all this? Should we be happy that Joe West is going to a medium that is already ruined and therefore won’t be harmed by his presence? Should we be unhappy that we’re going to hear from Joe West more? Should we be indifferent, since it will be easy to ignore? Should we be preemptively bitter that in two months someone will insist that something Joe West said was newsworthy and make a whole news cycle about it?
The answer is yes. We should feel and be all of those things. Joe West is a land of contrasts, even if the only things being contrasted are shit brown and shit green. And it would have been wonderful for him to just go away. But as Star Wars has taught us, villains never die. They just seem to die, then return a few movies later with no explanation given outside of some tie-in books that no one cares about.
That’s Joe West. He contains multitudes. It’s just too bad that not one of those multitudes was a good umpire.