Former Mets closer Billy Wagner had a '57 Chevy to thank for a few strike calls from longtime MLB umpire Joe West—at least according to former major league catcher Paul Lo Duca.
Lo Duca said on the "The Favorites Podcast" that one day in the early 2000s when he was catching for New York, Wagner told him that he would let West drive his car so the umpire would widen the strike zone.
“We’re playing like a really tight game against the Phillies and Billy Wagner comes in from the bullpen,” Lo Duca said on the podcast.