MLB umpire Joe West is suing retired catcher Paul Lo Duca for defamation after Lo Duca claimed that West accepted bribes from pitcher Billy Wagner.
Lo Duca made the comments back in April on a podcast, alleging that Wagner got a more favorable strike zone from West in exchange for letting him drive his vintage car. “So, it was 06 or 07, and we’re playing like a really tight game against the Phillies,” he said. “Billy Wagner comes in from the bullpen, and I used to go to the mound every time and, like, ‘What’s going on?’ He’s like, ‘Hey, Joe’s behind the plate, set a couple more inches inside.’ I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? Joe hates me.’ He’s like, ‘No no no no no no, Joe loves me.’ I go, ‘He hasn’t given us the corner all day.’ He’s like, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ 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 three to four inches inside, not even close. Guys were throwing bats and everything, Joe walks off the field. We get back into the clubhouse, and I’m like, ‘What the fuck 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.’”
The lawsuit filed by West in New York on Tuesday (Oct. 22) denies that West ever borrowed a car from Wagner and points out that the game Lo Duca described never actually happened.
“In reality, during 2006 and 2007, the two years that Lo Duca played for the New York Mets with Billy Wagner, Joe West was the home plate umpire for a game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Mets only once, Billy Wagner did not pitch at all, and the game ended on a home run, not on called strikes,” the suit reads.
West also debunked another of Lo Duca’s claims — that he was responsible for “eight or nine” of the catcher’s 15 career ejections — by pointing out that Lo Duca was only ejected from eight games in his 11-year career, and West was only responsible for one of those eight. He is suing for “unspecified damages.”
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