David West was born on September 1, 1964, in Memphis, TN, to Eugene C. West and Vivian Womble West. David passed away in Palm City, Florida from brain cancer on May 14, 2022.
West fell in love with baseball at an early age. According to Ripbaseball.com, West excelled in American Legion ball, playing for Millington Telephone, but the big left-hander with the 90 mile-per-hour fastball had to wait a bit to play at Craigmont High School. He was declared scholastically ineligible and missed his first two seasons of high school ball. After his Senior season he was named to second team of American Baseball Coaches Association High School All-America squad.
West was drafted by the New York Mets in the 4th round of the 1983 MLB June Amateur Draft from Craigmont HS (Memphis, TN). In the 1983 off-season after pitching for the GCL Mets, West who was a lefty was involved in a bad fall from a second floor warehouse and suffered a broken left elbow in addition to a broken right arm. These injuries set him back and kept him in A-ball from 1984-1986.
Westy as he was known made his major league debut on September 24, 1988 for the Mets against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium II and earned his first big league victory with a five inning start in which he allowed one run on 5 hits with 3 strikeouts in a 14-1 Mets victory. In addition to his first big league win, West was 2 for 2 with the bat with a single and a double and a run scored. That is a pretty nice debut in any league.
With the Mets in 1989 West appeared in 11 games and all but two were in relief. His two starts were both losses and neither went past the fourth inning. The Mets and Minnesota Twins hooked up in a blockbuster trade on July 31, 1989 and the Twins sent pitcher Frank Viola and minor league outfielder Loy McBride to the Mets in exchange for pitchers David West, Rick Aguilera, Kevin Tapani, Jack Savage and Tim Drummond. The 6-foot-6 West was perhaps the most highly touted of the five, as the Memphis native had been considered the top pitching prospect in the Mets farm system.
The Twins kept him in a relief role and in his first five games he gave up 3, 3, 4, 2, and 4 earned runs and never lasted more than two innings in any of those games. The Twins rewarded West with a start and he went 7.2 shutout innings against the Seattle Mariners allowing just 4 hits and earning his first Twins win. He finished out the 1989 season as a starter and was 3-2.
The 25 year-old West was a full-time starter in 1990 for Minnesota and made 27 starts posting a 7-9 record with a 5.10 ERA with his only two career complete games. In 1991 West hurt his elbow in spring training and then strained abdominal muscles just as he was about to return from that injury. He made his 1991 Twins debut on July 4 as a starter, but after making 11 starts that year, the Twins mostly pitched him out of the bullpen in September and October. The 1991 Twins were a different team from the year before when they finished last, in 1991 they won the pennant and went on to play the Atlanta Braves in the World Series. West appeared in two ALCS games against the Toronto Blue Jays and was the winner in the fifth and final game at the Skydome going three hitless inning in relief of Kevin Tapani. West pitched briefly in World Series games 3 and 5 but they did not go so well as he gave up 4 runs on 2 hits and 4 walks without retiring anyone.
The Twins sent West out to AAA Portland to start the 1992 season and he stayed there until he was called up in August. West finished the season with the Twins but was used sparingly, appearing in just 9 games, three of them starts and he lost all of them. His final stats for 1992 were 1-3 with a 6.99 ERA and his future in Minnesota looked dim. In the 1992 off-season the Twins traded David West to the Philadelphia Phillies for reliever Mike Hartley.
In 1993 West appeared in relief 76 times for Philly and had arguably the best year of his career going 6-4 with three saves and posting a 2.92 ERA. The Phillies went on to face the Atlanta Braves in the NLCS and then lost to the Toronto Blue Jays in the World Series 4 games to 2. West appeared in three games against the Braves and three games against the Blue Jays but the results were nothing to write home about. In 1994 started as a reliever but that didn’t go well so the Phillies made him a starter in late May and that went well until he injury finished his season in early August. 1995 was another tough year for West with injuries and he started just eight games before under-going surgery in early July that ended his season. After spending more than a year recovering and rehabbing from the surgery, West, now a 31 year-old returned to the Phillies in August of 1996 and appeared in 7 games posting a 2-2 record with a 4.76 ERA. After the season David West left as a free agent.
David West spent 1997 pitching in Japan for the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks and had an 8-5 record with a 6.36 ERA. In 1998 West returned to the United Stated and signed with the Cincinnati Reds in February but took his release in March. In early April he signed with the Houston Astros only to be traded to the Boston Red Sox in June. Things went poorly in Boston for West and he appeared in 6 games throwing a total of 2 innings and allowing six runs. The Red Sox released David West in early September and his big league career was in the history books. West pitched briefly in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization in 1999 and also made 6 appearances for the Lehigh Valley Black Diamonds of the independent Atlantic League. They were his final appearances in professional baseball.
West went 31-38 with a 4.66 ERA in 204 major league games, including 78 starts. He was 15-18 with a 5.33 ERA in 63 regular-season games with the Twins, including 47 starts. West was praised for being a great teammate by many former Phillies, including broadcaster Larry Anderson. He wrote the following: ““It is with great sadness that I write this message about my roomie and best teammate ever. David West had the biggest heart to go with his huge personality. He was always there to give you a pat on the back when you were down, or a hilarious one-liner when things were going well. He was the ultimate teammate, but an even better friend. He will certainly be missed. Rest in peace, my friend.”
David Lee West Sr. is survived by his wife, Jennifer West, daughter, Casey Christine West, son, David Lee West, Jr. stepson, William Cole Glemser, mother, Vivian West and brother, Eugene West, II and a large extended family. David was preceded in death by his father, Eugene C. West, Sr.
Twinstrivia.com would like to express their condolences to the family, friends and fans of David West. Thank you for the memories.