Blue Jays fans have their last scrap with Joe West

Former Blue Jays skipper gets tossed in a World Series game

For those of you that are old enough to remember, Joe West was part of the Blue Jays first World Series championship in 1992. It was during that series that a former Blue Jays manager in Bobby Cox was tossed from a game, which doesn’t happen all that often during the Fall Classic. I know I said I was going to talk about West’s scraps with the Blue Jays today, but I figure this is close enough.

The Blue Jays and Atlanta Braves were playing a hard fought series, with the Jays having a 2-1 series lead at the time in Game 4. The Braves were pressing with set-up man Duane Ward on the mound, and Brian Hunter tried to steal second base. With two strikes on the batter, he was thrown out by Jays catcher Pat Borders. Atlanta shortstop Jeff Blauser was the hitter, and he tried to check his swing without success, as the Jays appealed his swing and picked up the strike ’em out-throw ’em out double play to kill the potential rally.

As you can imagine, Cox was anything but pleased about the call, especially because of the pressure of the situation. In frustration he picked up a batting helmet and slammed it down, and whether he intended to or not, the helmet ended up rolling out on to the field. West was none too pleased with the interruption, and when Cox continued to give him a piece of his mind, the plate umpire decided to eject the legendary skipper. The Blue Jays would go on to win the game by a score of 2-1, and finish the series in six games.

Cox is actually the only MLB manager to be thrown out of two World Series games, as he was also tossed from a game during the 1996 Fall Classic between Atlanta and the New York Yankees. I suppose when you’re around as long as Cox and West each were, they were bound to have a confrontation at one point or another.