[Dick Murdoch, pictured, on St. Louis fans, officials, punks, and sissies.]

When it comes to losing and making excuses for it in the “nothing happening state of Missouri,” and on the weekend Milton Bradley breaks his media silence, I again defer to that poet laureate of athletes visiting St. Louis, Mr. Dick Murdoch. Also, anyone taking offense at Mr. Murdoch’s reference to southern Texans as “sissies and punks,” as he does here to a young Kevin von Erich, is welcome to “go on home, boy, and cry to your momma and your daddy.” That, or you can e-mail CSTB in Austin.

Look, as for today’s game, there’s no way to explain the Cubs’ 8-2 loss in St. Louis except by whining and complaining, which the Cubs official web site does well: “Shorthanded Cubs avoid using DL.” Still, I’m happy to join in, as it took Zambrano at shortstop (!) and a missing Marmol, Bradley, and Aramis Ramirez for the Cubs to strand 10 for a 4th consecutive loss and STL’s 5th consecutive win.

That said, the biggest story in the Cubs locker room is that while Milton Bradley’s groin is on the DL, his mouth isn’t. MB picks up where I left off and tells the Chicago sports media to go fuck itself. He broke his silence to the Cubs official reporter, Carrie Muskat, here. Most notably, for CSTB self-promotional purposes, Bradley accuses locals of what I’ve been saying here: That a Paul Sullivan basically twists stories out of nothing about him (or, imo, that Sully outright makes shit up), that a Gordon Wittenmyer tries to provoke him, and that the local gasbags windy city media sandbag him en masse with the ugly ceonceit that for Bradley to point out racism in baseball means he’s the problem, not the racism. Bradley speaks to Muskat here about the media and his overly harsh suspension:

“I’m just not into negativity,” he said. “I can see already I’m going to be that guy that since nothing else is going on in here — ‘We’re going to harp on Bradley all year and see if we can get him to snap.’ I’m not going to go for it.

“You can’t get a good story if I don’t talk to [the media],” he said. “You’ll make something up like you always do. If I talk to you, you’re going to make something up, and if I don’t talk to you, you’re going to make something up. So just go ahead and make something up and leave me out of it.”

There was no talk about putting Bradley on the disabled list to give him time to heal. He had been bothered by the sore groin before the April 12 game, and does not appear close to being ready to come back. Piniella said he is available to pinch-hit.

Bradley also is waiting for a hearing on his appeal of a two-game suspension issued by Major League Baseball disciplinarian Bob Watson after the outfielder argued a called third strike by home plate umpire Larry Vanover on April 16. That’s a matter of principle.

“It was a surprise to me,” Bradley said of the suspension. “I had no idea I touched him. They need a video forensic scientist to find a frame that shows I touched him with the bill of my helmet. It is what it is. I’m appealing because I didn’t feel that I touched him. I just want to say that I didn’t do it, and didn’t do it intentionally.”