Truck posted on March 18, 2019 16:23
EAGAN - A sad day in the HRL indeed, as one of our own OG Bears, and more importantly, and OG HRL’er, Jim “Westy” West has decided to hang ‘em up and sail into the old wiffle sunset. Unfortunately the demands of family and work life have made keeping a legendary wiffle career alive an impossibility.
I personally will cherish the three seasons that he and I spent together with the Bears—after years of never playing on the same team, having Westy as a teammate was a real treat, and I’ll never forget it.
Westy was a true character going back to the early days of the league, from the very first season in 2004 with the original Brewers, then playing with the Padres/Phillies. Westy took a few seasons off before coming back in 2012 with the Colt .45’s, then captained the Superbas for a season before joining the new Bears squad in 2016.
Penning a series of articles going into 2006 where he was openly lobbying to be voted MVP for that season, Westy was a multiple-time Fun Star. Westy once owned a bat called “Rainbow F*cking Brite”. A Westy Fun Fact—he has 12 career saves! I’m not sure how that stacks up to others, but that has got to be in the top 5 for career saves.
The bottom line, Westy was one of the very first to play in this league, and his legacy of bringing fun to the game will not only be missed by the Bears, but by all who got to share the rink with him.
There will always be room at The Bears Bar if the opportunity arises to come back to visit us!
