I awoke this morning (OK, afternoon) foolishly believing Carlos Beltran bailing out Billy Wagner after the latter blew a save on behalf of the uncharacteristically-brilliant Mike Pelfrey was Wednesday’s big baseball story. That was until I’d read the following item from the Dallas Morning News’ Richard Durrett. I’d wondered the other day what were the chances of Texas’ Milton Bradley joining Josh Hamilton on the AL All-Star Team, and I’ve since decided to keep my ballot secret, just in case Bradley learns he’s only a 4 hour drive from my house.
Milton Bradley is an emotional player. That emotion overflowed in the clubhouse after Wednesday™s game in response to something Kansas City Royals television broadcaster Ryan Lefebvre said about him on the air during the Texas Rangers’ 11-5 win.
Bradley left the clubhouse after the game and reached the press box but never talked to Lefebvre. General manager Jon Daniels and manager Ron Washington chased after Bradley, and Daniels escorted him back to the clubhouse.
“All I want to do is play baseball and make a better life for my kid than I had, that’s it,” Bradley said to a quiet clubhouse. “I love all you guys. … I’m strong, but I’m not that strong.”
Many players tried to console Bradley, who had his head down at his locker.
Lefebvre said, from what he remembers, that he was complimenting Josh Hamilton and how he’s been accountable for his mistakes and said “it doesn’t appear Milton Bradley has done the same thing in his life.”
“It is an interesting contrast between the two guys,” Lefebvre said. “We also spent a lot of time complimenting Milton Bradley, but that’s not what he heard when he was in the clubhouse.”
Lefebvre talked with Daniels and Washington but did not speak with Bradley, who probably heard the comments while in the clubhouse between at-bats as the designated hitter.
Bradley has the day off Thursday, as the Rangers and Royals are tied at 4 during the 5th inning. Lefebvre obviously knows a lot about Hamilton and Bradley’s respective histories (or at least their reputations), and perhaps he’s using today’s broadcast to explain how Bradley hasn’t been made to suffer serious career consequences for his actions over the years. Not only is there an argument Hamilton wouldn’t be putting up such sick numbers without Bradley hitting behind him (and vice versa), but there’s no shortage of clubs that could sorely use Bradley in their lineup. Amongst them, the Kansas City Royals.
During today’s D-Backs/Mets telecast, SNY’s Gary Cohen interrupted an 8th inning Arizona rally to opine “when you get a person in any walk of life who continually behaves in an egregious manner and he is enabled in that behavior….that’s how the behavior perpetuates.”
But enough about Chris Cotter, what does Cohen really think of Milton Bradley?
Maybe Cohen was predicting the fabulous performance of Billy Wagner in the 9th inning. By ‘fabulous’ I mean ‘pathetic.’ Since he only gave up the tying run and the Mets (as of this point) have not lost (yet), I guess that’s kinda harsh.
I was listening to the game on the radio, and while Wayne and Howie went over Bradley’s insane knee injury from last year, they conveniently left out the fact that MLB agreed Bradley had been baited by Mike Winters, and even made a groan inducing board game joke. And never mind the Royals, the Mets could sue a bat of Bradley’s caliber about now.
I’d like to speak briefly on the Mets game today as well: /barfs.
Milton Bradley, Phil Bradley, Scott Bradley…can any of them get through an eighth inning while giving up less than four hits? And when is Aaron Heilman going to get sent down? Holy shit. I was crying like Milton watching him out there.