So, I couldn’t make last night’s Mariners game, as promised (I know that you were all just dying to hear what I had to say about that) but I did get to Goodyear for today’s split-squad contest v. the Indians. Felix Hernandez was starting, and I was looking forward to seeing his heater, as well as whichever half of the starters showed up.
After buying a ticket one row behind the camera well to the left field side of the Mariner’s dugout (Spring Training, like minor league baseball, lets you get up close and personal) I strolled into the park and the guy scanning tickets spotted my Cubs hat and said “Hey, I bet you’re here to heckle Milton!” I explained that I had no such plans, thank you very much, just here to soak up the sun, watch a ballgame, have a couple of beers and do my pseudo-journalistic duty. Before the game, I watched Milton affably sign a few autographs for fans.
But Milton made it hard not to live up to the ticket-taker’s prophecy. Besides the AP story in this morning’s Arizona Republic (and on the PI), headlined “Bradley embraces the ‘bad guy’ role,” Bradley pulled a move today that made near-comatose Mariner fan senior citizens sitting behind and beside me boo him heartily.
First, other Mariner news: Felix Hernandez is like unto a God (or demi-God, if Ichiro is our only allowable God) but he had a kind of rough outing. He threw first-pitch strikes to the first eight batters he faced, and cruised through three innings with three strikeouts and only one run allowed, which only scored due to a bad throw on what should have been an inning-ending DP. But the in the fourth, he walked the leadoff hitter on four pitches and the next batter on five. Only a DP saved him. In the fifth, he struck out the side, but also gave up a walk that scored on a double to the ninth hitter. He was yanked after five innings and 83 pitches, and took the loss.
As for Milton: remember, it’s Spring Training. Everyone’s here to get in shape, to work on their hitting or pitching or fielding, especially veteran players who are guaranteed a roster spot. Milton’s bad guy move explicated after the jump . . .
So, in the top of the fifth, after the leadoff hitter struck out, Milton did what he is best at: he drew a walk. Then he stole second base. Then he stole third. Among the crowd near me—again, mostly retirees, mostly M’s fans—lots of applause, nods of appreciation, words about Milton’s potential upside. Then Ryan Garko hits a tough grounder to the third baseman—and Milton was running on contact. Easy toss to the catcher for the Indians, who’s standing straight up, and Milton is gonna be out by ten feet.
He doesn’t slide. He doesn’t just accept the tag and trot back to the dugout. Instead, he puts his right shoulder down and barrels into the catcher, trying to dislodge the ball. The catcher of course hangs on (he’d had the ball long enough to bury it deep into his mitt, or his fucking jock strap for that matter) and Milton is out out out.
The crowd, throughout the park (attendance 3,534) erupts in lusty boos. Old timers behind me stir out of their heat-induced lethargy and begin talking about Pete Rose and Ray Fosse, about how any professional ballplayer knows that you don’t do some things in exhibition games that you do in regular season games, about how low-class it was to potentially injure some Indians rookie (Lou Marson) just trying to make the team. After a strikeout ended the inning, Milton headed out to left field to more booing and heckling (I just yelled “Hey, Milton, how’s your shoulder?”).
In the bottom of the sixth, with Milton slated to bat second in the seventh, he was yanked. No other Mariner started came out before the eighth. Guess whoever was managing wanted the bad boy to not get scolded any more by the cruel cruel geriatric fans of Goodyear, Arizona.
In happier news, rookie second baseman Kyle Seager’s mom sat in front of me and got some good photos of her son playing solid defense as a replacement for Chone Figgins in the eighth. Baseball is all about family values. Wonder about Milton’s family sometimes. . .
Other takes on the game: From the Mariners website , and USS Mariner. From the Everett Heraldnet. The Seattle Times. Note in this last story that Milton says if another player had done this, no one would have said anything. That’s purest bullshit. I have just gone to five spring training games in as many days, and every hard slide or brushback pitch elicited comments about how Spring Training is not the time for that kind of thing.
But, as Milton always insists, he does his own thing.
Dude,
Are you this much of an obsessive jerk in other areas of your life?
By your own admission, it was the kind of play that would have caused no notice in the regular season, and that any normally-hypercompetitive baseball player would have to force himself to avoid doing. You’re obsessed.
If anything, MB should be rewarded for pulling the old people out of their coma. He saved their life.
@1 Sure. Whatever. Had Milton done nothing wrong and had a good day, I’d’ve written about that. . .
@2 there is a difference between exhibition and regular season games. That’s the point.
@3 You might be right. . .
Thanks CF for the coverage. That MB move indeed sounds like bullshit, given the context. Hard to mistrust a crowdful of boos.
Is Prozac considered doping?
Naming a kid Milton Bradley isn’t even funny. It’d be like naming someone Parker Brothers or Wham-O.
@1 – People who write about sports, especially people who *blog* about sports, kinda hafta be a little obsessive about details.
Aw, who gives a fuck? I mean yeah, we’re staring down a whole season of Milton Bradley debacles, but anyone could see that coming. Let the asshole take a run at the catcher, Wakamatsu won’t keep him on the field during the season if it’s determined that he’s causing real problems.
Do you think Milton Bradley owns a pitbull? That would give the Savage Bros something to work the nerves of everyone. Maybe if his pitbull was a therapy dog that would actually elicit some interesting posts.
Please, God, give Milton Bradley a therapy pitbull. Only good things will come of it.
CF is absolutely right–it’s an asshole move, as any baseball fan knows.
@1–who’s the obsessive jerk–the guy who writes the detailed blog entry on a subject he’s interested in, or the guy who purportedly isn’t interested in the topic, yet takes the time to not only read the whole thing BUT ALSO post a comment complaining about it? It’s a free country, dude. If you aren’t interested in the topic, feel free to move right along to the next slog entry.
CF–keep up the good work.
If the catcher would expect to get trucked during the regular season, the catcher should expect to get trucked in spring training. Why don’t you switch to whining about guys who still play for your beloved Cubs?
I’ll take your word for it that it was an unnecessary play by Milton. My question is, was his shoulder block thrown in a dirty, Tony Phillips style, or the more classic Pete Rose style? (Phillips would go low, trying to take out the legs, whereas Rose went for the chest/glove/ball.)
Either way, it sounds like a fun day at the park! What’s the Goodyear facility like?
Spring training 1969, Pilots/Cubs. And I quote:”Ray Oyler was racked up at second base by Glenn Beckert of the Cubs. and when he came back to earth he was heard to call Beckert a son of a bitch. This is not on the same order as motherfucker. but he didn’t have a lot of time to think.”
Between Cliff Lee getting suspended & stuff like this. Sounds to me like the M’s are going for a “Bad Boys of Seattle” type thing. As a casual baseball fan, I like it.
Cubs fans don’t know shit about good baseball. That’s why they’re Cubs fans.
Wow, there are a lot of people who don’t know the Baseball Code. CF and the old timers are right – you don’t play like this when nothing is at stake.
It’s fascinating to see Mariners fans suddenly getting defensive about a jerk like Bradley, now that he’s one of “our guys.” Turn the tables, and have Bradley on an opposing team plowing into Dan Wilson (back in the day) in a meaningless game and you all would be screaming for his head.
Perspective’s a funny thing: “He may be a jerk, but now he’s OUR jerk.”
@13
Goodyear is a nice little ballpark–decent food, clean facilities, and maybe the best looking beer vendor I’ve ever seen (lithe redhead . . . ) working the bottle stand on the 1st base side.
And anyone in Chicago looking to test my Baseball knowledge, with six weeks free this summer, seeking college credit:
http://www.scs.northwestern.edu/summernu…
Hilarious. A course on Sports at Northwestern “0-34” University.
And in the Fall maybe I’ll take Comparative Religions at Liberty University.
@17 (& plenty of others),
I don’t really have much good to say about Milton Bradley and think the trade that brought him here could be a huge mistake. That said, it really seems like a double standard to say “nothing is at stake” in a ST game. I mean, if the Tribe’s catcher was really playing for his job, wouldn’t we/they want to see how he handles a potentially jarring “real game” like situation, such as this?
And if the geezers down in AZ are actual baseball fans, wouldn’t they want to see players displaying something close to maximum effort? Should Ichiro not have attempted that freaking amazing catch he made the other day, so as to not risk injury? (and go back and watch the replay — he tumbled up against the wall. He absolutely risked injury.)
I just always get sort of annoyed when people who expect what can be a dangerous (and it’s some of those same potentially dangerous elements that frequently make it so enjoyable) game to be played in completely saccharine conditions so as to coddle the participants. The Fosse/Rose example is a fine one, and the fallout from Pete’s (admittedly crazy) hit resulted in the all-star games devolving from what should be among the most entertaining games in all sports, to an annual turd of a spectacle in which we’re often denied the opportunity to see players exhibiting some of the very traits that made them all-stars. Except for when Randy Johnson pitches, of course.
One other quick point… Lest anyone should think otherwise, it’s a safe bet that any minor leaguer who’s playing on the field with the ML roster this late into camp (even if it’s a split-squad game) is a highly regarded prospect who’s making decent $$$ for his efforts. I’d guess he could surely have a 6-figure contract, if not $75K+ easy. Not saying he’d retire on this, nor that he’s lavishly wealthy or deserves to regularly be put in harms way b/c of it, just that there’s plenty of us who’d go out there and play balls out, injury be damned, kamikaze style effort for a heck of a lot less.
@ 21, the scenario you describe – is the catcher tough enough to be plowed over by a baserunner – is probably one any major league wannabe has been through numerous times in the minors or college. That’s probably not a skill he needs to hone as much as throwing out a base stealer or settling down an erratic pitcher. Even if this were something to test out, since we’re talking about Milton Bradley, it’s highly unlikely that he’d be considerate enough of a competitor to help him out with that skill.
The baseball season is already 162 games and up to a maximum 21 postseason games on top of that if you make the playoffs. It’s a marathon, as the cliche goes, so you don’t wear yourself out by giving your all for games that have no bearing on anything. It’s simply about getting in shape and, if you’re a rookie or a utility player or on the downside of your career, trying to earn a roster spot.
The old timers who flock to spring training know this and go more for the thrill of seeing a game up close, or to get their baseball fix in early (my mom, for example, hates it when there’s no baseball), or what have you. No one wants to see someone give their all now, just to watch them hit the wall in September.
I’m not a fan of the physicality of plays at home plate. Why can’t you crash into the second baseman to get him to drop the ball? With that said, it’s collisions at home are part of the game. People who don’t like it shouldn’t play catcher.
mikehammers: I was looking for the replay of Ichiro’s catch the other day! Do you know where I can check it out?
I saw it linked (probably from mlb.com, but not sure) on joe posnanki’s blog link from joeposnanski.com
Was part of a thing he’s doing leading up to the start of the season and profiling a whole crapload of players in individual posts. One of them (relatively recent — surely on the first page of posts from the aforementioned link) is on Ichiro and has the link. Not great quality, but probably as good as any that exists. The blog post is worth reading in it’s entirety as well.