Joe West ejects Andre Dawson and Wrigley erupts, a breakdown
What Happened
Aaron Andre Dawson of the Chicago Cubs steps to the plate against the Cincinnati Reds in the bottom of the ninth inning. The game is tied 2-2 in this pivotal matchup between NL Central rivals. Veteran umpire Joe West calls a borderline pitch a strike, eliciting an immediate protest from Dawson. "The ball breaks around the plate," Dawson argues. "Come on, you've got to make the call when it's crossing." West firmly stands by his decision, retorting, "You saw it and you waited to make sure." The heated exchange quickly escalates, and West ejects the irate Dawson from the game. Cubs manager Jim Essian rushes out to defend his star player, but he's too late - Dawson has already been tossed. "What the hell? It wasn't a strike. Come on," Dawson yells at West. The umpire smugly responds, "You want me to call it before it gets there? You saw it and you waited to make sure." Dawson's temper boils over as he unleashes a profanity-laced tirade, reportedly calling West a "fucking pot belly racist bitch." Enraged, Dawson begins throwing bats onto the field, with the Wrigley faithful joining in by pelting West with various objects. "You let him stay right here. You did you want him ejected? You didn't even come help your dude out. Come on," West chastises Essian, before narrowly avoiding getting hit by a flying helmet and bat. As the chaotic scene unfolds, Dawson continues to express his fury, yelling, "Why the fuck did YOU THROW ME OUT FOR?" West simply stands there, grinning and reveling in the pandemonium he has created. By the end, an estimated 18 bats have been hurled onto the field, with the crowd joining in the melee. "I don't think the fans do with their own thing. I I don't what what I do doesn't hinder what they do. I think there's a pretty good correlation that they saw the player throwing stuff on the field and they're like, 'Yeah, it's July 23rd, 1991, and I want to throw stuff on the field. Why not?'" Dawson later reflects on the incident.
Full Transcript
Click timestamps to jump to that momentA nice, beautiful summer night in
Chicago. The year is 1991.
Cubs and the Reds are playing. Hi mom.
Hi dad. Hi mom. The kids are loving it.
We got John Goodman in the booth with
Harry Kerry. That's a good time. That's
Chicago summed up right there. But
that's not what this one's about. It's
brought to you by DraftKings. We've got
the Reds blowing into his hand, chomping
away at gum. Andre Dawson in the batters
box just
intimidating
staring in. Nice mustache. First pitch
outside called strike by Joe West. Then
he fouls that one back. 0 and2. Fouls
that one back. Remains 0 and2. The wind
up the pitch. Another ball down the
middle. 0 and2 again. We're going to
take low. One and two. Look at that
batting stance. Unbelievable. Takes up
and in. All right, two balls, two
strikes. Got ourselves a little bit of
an at bat. He went swinging early after
the strike that he didn't agree with.
And now he's taking, having patience.
Takes again. Ball. No. Strike three. He
says it broke around the plate. He's
mad. Joe West. He says, "Hey, you want
to get tossed? Keep talking. He's fine.
I'll walk." And then Joe West does this
look. And ah man, you got to love Joe
West. You got to love him. You got to
miss him. just smiling as smug as can
be. Andre Dawson doesn't like that. He
looks back at him and he sees this
smile. He says, "Oh man, no way." So,
what are you doing? Ball breaks around
the plate. Ball is low, Joe. That is
Cubs manager Jim Essen. And they're not
even arguing if it's low. He's saying it
right around the plate, but he's getting
involved from a distance. Ball's low,
Joe. I don't think that's what they're
talking about. He He's not going to
leave, though. He's not going to leave
his perch. He's going to stay there. And
Andre Dawson says, "Well, why'd you wait
so long to make the call?" And Joe Wet
or something along those lines. And Joe
Wes tells him, "Because I wanted to make
sure it was a strike. That's why." He's
like, "Well, what the hell? It wasn't a
strike. Come on." And he says, "Uh, no,
that's [ __ ] You saw it. Get out of
here." And meanwhile, manager still just
standing there looking like what every
actor that played a baseball player on
sitcoms in the 90s looked like. Now I
get it. It just looks like a guy acting
to me, but that's how they really
looked, I guess. Anyway, he's still not
coming out to protect his player. Just
standing there chomping. And Dawson is
is still mad. Andre Dawson's still mad.
He says, "Bull [ __ ] The ball breaks
around the plate. Come on." And he's
saying, "You got to make the call when
it's crossing." I think that's what he's
saying here. He's trying to make the
point like you got to make the call at
the point when it's crossing the plate.
And it was on the outside there. I
couldn't figure out the what the lip
read is. Joe S responds in Joe Smug
fashion and says, "You want me to call
it before it gets there? You saw it and
you WAITED TO MAKE SURE." Something like
that. He's throwing the you waited to
make sure back in his face. Cuz it does
look like that. You saw it and you
waited to make sure. So, he's just
throwing his words back in his face, I
guess. And he gets ejected right away.
Says, "Fuck you. Why the [ __ ] did YOU
THROW ME OUT FOR?" HUH? It's [ __ ]
You're [ __ ] [ __ ] Huh? Now, this next
line, I'm almost scared to say this
because I don't want to put words in
people's mouth that I'm not pretty
positive. If I have the subtitles on
screen, that usually means I'm like 95%
sure they're saying this or something
relatively very close to this. If I ever
doing voices without the subtitles, I'll
take them off and that means I'm just
messing around.
To me, it really looks like he says
this, but I don't want to say it. and
then he's not there. But to me, it
really looks like he tells Joe West, he
says, "Fucking pot belly racist bitch."
It just really looks like it to me, but
I don't want to be saying that if that's
not what he said. Anyway, now the
manager finally came out and Joe West is
like, "You let him stay right here. You
did you want him ejected? You didn't
even come help your dude out. Come on."
Joe West giving lessons in managing and
protecting and then he his eyes get
averted up. What is that? Oh, it's a
helmet got thrown his way and then a
bat. That's one bat thrown by Andre
Dawson. We're going to get a lot more.
So, just the bats thrown meters at one.
That's all you need to know. Now,
everyone's coming over to get him off
the field. Manager's going at Joe West
and Joe West is like, "What are you
doing?" He says, "Uh, so that's your
[ __ ] move to throw me out? Is that
right?"
>> Oh, that's good.
Yeah, that was yours, Jim. manager
supposed to protect their own player.
Now, I'm missing a word here again, but
that was yours, Jim. And it looks like
he says managers
something with a P problems. And then
right here, protect your own player. So,
he's giving him lessons in managing. And
he's saying that one's yours, Jim.
Managers probably supposed to protect
your own player, you know, and you
didn't protect him. And now he's just
laughing at him. And this is what Joe
West does that for 50 years got people
really riled up. Andre Dawson was just
arguing about the pitch. He's about to
leave. He turned. He saw Joe West
smiling at him. He's like, "What are you
doing? Why are you like smuggly smiling
at me? You trying to make me even more
mad?" And then he gets ejected. And then
he just smiles at him some more. And now
he's doing the smile to the manager as
well. And Dawson is like, "I want to
throw more bats. One's not enough." Joe
West looking around just enjoying the
beautiful chaos he has created. I mean,
he's loving this. He's loving it. And
Don's like, "You love it. You want more
commotion?" Okay, fine. Here. Bam. Five
more bats coming your way. Let's count
them. Two hands.
Five. Five pin wheels coming his way.
And then he's going to grab his hat and
his glove. That's it. I'm leaving now.
Okay. And then HE TURNS. MORE BATS. TAKE
THESE TWO. DAMN. Now that was six more
bats. So, we're at 12.
You got five of the light and then one
black one on the top there. A pack of
three on the right and then one, two,
three on the left. Plus the five from
the earlier batch plus the one. We're at
12 bats thrown onto the field from Andre
Dawson. And he's like, "You want more?
You want more bats?" And umpire Eric
Greg comes over. He's like, "Hey man,
calm down, please. Let's not throw any
more bats. I know that you're upset and
all." And he's like, "No, I'm going to
throw more bats cuz he just talked to me
again." Now, where's the window that
he's going to throw these? We've got
people standing. How's he going to get
them on the field? He finds a way. I'm
going to guess that was six more bats. A
whole a whole barrel full. That's 18
bats onto the field. You pick them all
up. Now, what happens is the crowd sees
how much fun throwing bats onto the
field look like, and they say, "You know
what, Joe West? Why don't you include
this in your report?" the crowd's going
to throw some stuff too and they just
start going. He was quoted Andre Dawson
saying I don't think the fans do with
their own thing. I I don't what what I
do doesn't hinder what they do. I think
there's a pretty good correlation that
they saw the player throwing stuff on
the field and they're like, "Yeah, it's
July 23rd, 1991, and I want to throw
stuff on the field. Why not?" They threw
a lot of stuff on the field and these
guys, I was waiting for them to come up
with like a a giant shovel or a broom.
Nah, everything got picked up one at a
time by hand,
which seems like a lot or just swept in
like one little broom. Oh, Larus is
loving it. He's like, "Oh, this is good.
This I'm bummed out. I want to be on the
other side of this." Does get riled up
because of an ejection later. I'll do
another video on that one because
there's just too much going on. But you
look at him just nodding. And then Eric
Davis like, I got a golf ball. Hey, I
got this golf ball out here. Who had a
golf ball in their pocket? Maybe they
went golfing, you know, summer golf,
kept one in their pocket, then they
threw it on the field. That's a little
scary. I wouldn't want to get hit with a
golf ball. People are throwing golf
balls. Shows the like, "Yeah, it's a
golf ball." Uh, yeah, it was thrown on
the field. I'm like, "Okay, I got it."
Like, that's all the info. And then they
got to sweep everything up. Just look at
that. Just like one thing at a time.
Whole crew of guys, those outfits look
very uncomfortable for a summer night in
Chicago. Sweeping up the trash. Just
going into that room. That's just the
garbage room. Joe West finishes report.
Adds in crowd. also got mad at me and
threw stuff on the field. I enjoyed
every moment of all of it. I am good for
baseball. Look at the smile. He's loving
it. Good times. And then the game
continues. And I just wanted to include
that pitch because the strike zone has
changed so much that that is not a
strike and no one argues it. It used to
be a hot dog strike zone and now we've
got more of a French fry container
strike zone.
What visuals for me? I mean, if you
don't understand that, take a French fry
container from McDonald's from 1991.
Stand it up. That's a strike. And better
yet, I'll use this cup. Is a strike zone
now.
This was a strike zone then.
Class dismissed. Let's hear what Andre
Dawson had to say in his postgame
because there's some good stuff.
>> I just didn't think that uh he showed
professionalism. I think uh you know he
gave the signal me to leave the ball
game a little bit prematurely.
>> What do you think the followup's going
to be?
>> I don't know. I'm not even concerned
about it. Uh I know I'll be fine for
being tossed out of the game and not
incident with the bats. Uh just, you
know, lost it a little bit. I was still
a little bit perturbed because
>> just lost it a little bit. Just a bit
perturbed.
18 bats.
>> Uh he got that little smirk on his face
and you know,
I didn't show him up in any way and I
just felt that uh he could have bear
down a little bit more than the
circumstances and when you run somebody
out of the game and you smile at him
that can set him off real easy.
>> That's who he's a real ass. That's all
it is to it. And you know, he thinks
he's he intimidates people.
>> He's a red ass. I think Joe West just
genu genuinely enjoyed
drama and spectacle. Anyway, there you
go. More break more old school
breakdowns coming your way. Thank you to
MLB for giving me the footage and thank
you to you guys for watching. Thank you
to DraftKings for sponsoring. We
appreciate you and we'll be back with
more and
many blessings.