CHICAGO — The Oak Ridge Boys will be there.
So will Commissioner Rob Manfred.
And Chicago Bears icon Jim McMahon.
Fourteen-time Grammy Award singer Emmylou Harris, too.
There will be another 130 guests and friends traveling to Chicago for the historic game Tuesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field between the Chicago White Sox and St. Louis Cardinals.
Joe West is scheduled to work his record 5,376th game when he squats behind the plate, surpassing Hall of Famer Bill Klem’s mark that has stood for 80 years.
“This record will never be broken,” former umpire Terry Tata says. “It’s almost mathematically impossible.”
That’s because umpires now work no more than 120 games a season and spend two weeks in the instant replay office in New York, meaning it would take 45 seasons to surpass West.
Considering umpires don’t reach the big leagues until they’re at least 30, it’s hard to imagine a 75-year-old umpire standing behind home plate, particularly with automated strike zones and robot umpires on the horizon.
Then again, there may be no umpire like “Cowboy Joe’’ West ever again.
Because he’s not only an umpire. He’s also a singer-songwriter, actor, golfer and philanthropist.
West has appeared in two movies, recorded two albums, appeared at the Grand Ole Opry, sung with Mickey Gilley, Merle Haggard and Johnnie Lee, been a…
