COWBOY JOE…One of a Kind

(Excerpted in part from the book, IF THESE LIPS COULD TALK)   How did I become pals with Cowboy Joe West, the man who will set the major league record for most games umpired in baseball history (5,376) tonight (5/25) in Chicago?  The man of whom someone once said, “This is a guy who will walk into a blast furnace with two gasoline buckets, he doesn’t give a damn.”     Racquetball.  That’s right, racquetball.  You remember racquetball.  It was…