Umpire who blew crucial call in Yankees-Red Sox series set to retire | Called Dave Roberts safe in 2004 ALCS Game 4

To err is human. And no doubt Joe West has made his fair share of mistakes during his four decades a big-league umpire.

During Sunday’s game between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, the Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham tweeted the following:

Joe West on the plate tonight. He plans to retire after the season, so this could well be his last game at Fenway. West, 68, has been an MLB umpire since 1976. He’s the man who called Dave Roberts safe at second in 2004. “Country Joe” can be combative. But he’s a good umpire.

So naturally, West found himself in a sticky situation Sunday. Per NJ Advance Media’s Randy Miller, it happened during Aaron Judge’s game-changing at-bat in the eighth inning, when he appeared to strike out.

He tipped the pitch, but the ball caromed into the top of catcher Christian Vazquez’s mitt and stuck there for a full second or two looking like a snow cone. The ball didn’t move a whisker until Vazquez reached for the baseball with his throwing hand and knocked it out of his glove. When the ball fell to the dirt, retiring plate umpire Joe West flashed a foul-ball sign with his arms to add a big blooper to his final game at Fenway Park.

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Given extra life at the plate, Judge made the most of it, lacing a two-run double to give the Yankees a lead they would not relinquish. And that didn’t sit well with Vazquez. Per Miller:

“Yeah, I caught the ball,” Vazquez said. “I dropped it in the transfer. That’s the first time that happened to me, so I didn’t know how to react. ... I was getting the ball in my hand. It was in the top of the glove and I was looking for the ball in the middle of the glove, so I dropped it finding the ball.”

Thanks in part to West’s call, the Yankees went on to beat the Red Sox, 6-3, and take over first place in the American League Wild-Card race.

As for West, YardBarker reports he will walk away from baseball after umpiring more MLB games than anyone in history, having set the record in May.

(NJ Advance Media’s Randy Miller contributed to this report.)

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Mike Rosenstein may be reached at mrosenstein@njadvancemedia.com.