Joe West was behind the plate when Willie McCovey hit his 500th home run on June 30, 1978.
He was at first base for Nolan Ryan’s fifth no-hitter on Sept. 26, 1981.
“I’ve always said that when you’re an umpire, you’re witnessing a piece of history every day,” West said Tuesday night during a conference call. “Some days are bigger than others. Some things that happen that are more magnified than others.
“You’re part of a piece of history every day, and that’s a cool thing.”
West made history Tuesday at Guaranteed Rate Field, working his major-league-record 5,376th regular-season game, surpassing Bill Klem. He was behind the plate for the Chicago White Sox’s 8-3 victory against the St. Louis Cardinals.
The Oak Ridge Boys sang the national anthem. The San Diego Chicken performed a bit. There was a pregame video tribute that included other umpires and musician Garth Brooks. Fans booed, though some applauded.
It was a night West will not forget.
“Baseball’s a big family,” West said. “Are you going to have arguments? Yeah, well, you have arguments in any family. There wasn’t a player tonight that didn’t come up and say congratulations. I’m very humbled how this all came off.”
West, 68, has had his share of run-ins, including a 2010 incident in which White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle was called for a second balk, dropped his glove in disgust and was ejected.
“I thought he was going to be here to throw out the first pitch,” West joked.
There was no Buehrle, but there was a balk called on Cardinals reliever Junior Fernández in the sixth inning.
One member of the Oak Ridge Boys asked afterward, “Did you think in your record-breaking game that you would call a balk on somebody?” West said with a laugh. “I said, ‘Not really, but he balked, didn’t he?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ “
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and former Commissioner Peter Ueberroth stopped by before the game to offer congratulations.
“I felt a whole lot of warmth there, that was really nice,” West said. “I was just blown away by how nice everybody’s been about this.”
Sox starter Lucas Giolito tipped his cap in West’s direction before the first pitch. It’s something Giolito does before every start, but he acknowledged it was a “big night for Joe.”
“I just wanted to congratulate him on a wonderful career and this historic night for him right before we started,” Giolito said. “I just wanted to add a little extra in there.”
West said he felt “pretty good” and added, “We’ll have to see,” when asked how much longer he would like to umpire.
Well after the game, West wrapped up Tuesday with a large group photo behind the plate.
“An old minor-league ballplayer told me one time that baseball has two kinds of people, those that are humble and those that are about to be,” West said. “And I was very humbled tonight by that outpouring of all those people. That was very nice.”
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