NEW YORK -- Major League Baseball umpire Joe West was awarded $500,000 in damages plus interest dating to July 8 in a defamation suit against former All-Star catcher Paul Lo Duca.
New York Supreme Court Justice John J. Kelley issued his decision Monday in a lawsuit West filed in October 2019 against Lo Duca and The Action Network. The network was dismissed from the suit last July, when Kelley granted a motion by West for a default judgment against Lo Duca.
West contended that Lo Duca said during an April 18, 2019, podcast on The Action Network that he had been ejected 15 times during his major league career and eight or nine had been by West.