Bud Black puts Milton Bradley at Risk

Two things about the MB situation:

I heard Sandy Alderson interviewed on the Padres' flagship station in San Diego and he mentioned that the same umpire crew (actually, he said 3 of the 4 who were in San Diego for the Colorado series) are slated to ump the Padres' season-ending series in Milwaukee. I wonder who ISN'T going to be there from that crew.

Second, Bradley not only had his issues and got hurt, but earlier in Sunday's game he accidentally stepped on Mike Cameron's hand while trying to avoid colliding with Cameron on a fly ball. Cameron, as a result, is also out for the rest of the season and is a free agent, I believe, at the end of this year.

 

Wow, I had forgotten about Cameron.

This has been the year of the injury, and the year of the Big Chance, all around baseball. M's blew it for want of starting pitching; Pads have had other problems. Not dead yet, but if they make the playoffs, I don't see how they can create much fuss now.

Regarding Bradley, this incident had a building momentum, and he wasn't able to check his own. But the first base ump pretty clearly made no effort to be the stopper, wouldn't you agree?

One of the things good umps do is stay out of the way.

 

Winters is the same guy who threw Pudge Rodriguez out of a game for pointing at home plate while arguing. As he rose up from bending over, Pudge brushed Winters, who immediately threw him out of the game, even though afterwards Winters agreed there was no intent.


But in this case, Bradley was out of control. (Damn, stoob doesn't agree with me on this point. Whatever will I do?)

 

A. Winters instigatted this anbd baited Bradley, Should be disciplined.
B. Bradley overreacted (as usual). He actually called time out just to go after Winters.
That's two wrongs.

Then there is the one person whose role has been overlooked, the one person who might have and should have intervened and stopped Bradley before it went to far.
What the fuck was Bobby Meacham doing?
As soon as Bradley starts chirping back at Winters, the first base coach MUST ask for time, take Milton for a short walk and cool him down before it escalates. Meacham stood there and did nothing until Bradley was running at Winters.

 

If it comes down to witnesses to this whole episode, will Todd Helton be called in to give his side of the story? I'd think Helton and the Rockies want no part of this as a possible distraction as they are making a big push for the playoffs.

 

If Winters said shut the fuck up, he most DEFINITELY overreacted. That is crossing the line. If Bradley swore at him first, OK... I'll admit, it might be a different story. But something needs to be done. This current MLB umpiring crew has gone on far too long with its smug attitudes (Yes, CB, I'm talking about you) without being checked.

 

CB is an idiot. Has no business umpiring baseball games outside of Legion ball.

This whole argument hinges on what Winters said to Bradley, and to who instigated the argument.

 

Bradley claims, that unprovoked, he was called a fucking piece of shit.

 

At least Winters was being honest.

 

My favorite quote from the whole thing was when Bradley said Winters shouldn't have been looking at him after he struck out.

What a miserable jackass. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

 

I got to know Bradley his first few years in the league. There were incidents even then. But I reached out; most of the other beat guys were just frankly too intimidated by the glare and rarely talked to him.

I really liked him. No doubt he has issues. And he's a complicated fella. But he's smart, speaks his mind, and there are just a few extraordinary things in the way he was brought up, just little details, that really surprised me in a good way.

But he's nuts. It's a shame. Because he's such a talent.

Every athlete has his Achilles' heel.

 

Gray area, then. Bradley should have had more self control for his teammates, but if someone called me a fucking piece of shit before I crossed the line with them, it would be on like Donkey Kong, so I don't want to he a hypocrite here.

And if Winters called Bradley a fucking piece of shit to start this thing, the Winters should be suspended for a good bit. He shouldn't be sued or anything like that, because Bradley could have controlled himself, but Winters has no business being an MLB umpire with an attitude like that. No one comes to see the umpires.