But WTF re: Milton Bradley.

I’ve been remiss in my Sports Slogging, due to the demands of, you know, the paying job. Papers to grade, classes to prep for, research to conduct, advisees to advise. I didn’t even know that Milton had walked out of Tuesday’s Mariners-Rays game until a bartender at Bruno’s tipped me off.

Man. Glad to see that the Mariners plan to be supportive of whatever is up with Milton. Just heard the broadcasters on tonight’s game asking whether this was “the last straw.” Well, that always depends on what you’re drinking: if it’s the Kool-Aid or the Reality Drink.

Perspectives on this:

The Times

It’s one thing to throw a batting helmet, or equipment after striking out. All players do it. This sport is enormously frustrating for even the best players in the game.

But it’s another thing entirely to pack up your belongings and walk out on your team while a game is still in progress. That’s a kind of anxiety, of pressure, that most players in the game do not succumb to.

Since spring training, I have heard a lot of players say good things about Bradley. About how he cares so much about this team and finding a place here in Seattle that he’s gone overboard in putting pressure on himself to make it here. Just last week, he told reporters in Chicago: “God bless Seattle.”

Never have I heard him described as selfish. I’ve heard words like “He’s such a good kid, he tries so hard, if only…”

If only.

Last night, the words would be “If only he could cope to the point where he didn’t walk out on us in the middle of a 3-1 game.”

But he couldn’t cope. He did walk out.

USS Mariner

We knew this was part of the deal when the Mariners traded for Milton Bradley. He is who he is. And, so now, we have our first Milton Bradley Situation. Per Mike Salk:

According to a source, Bradley yelled at the umpire from the bench before being told by Don Wakamatsu to cool it. Wakamatsu said that he would handle the umpire himself. Bradley responded that someone had to say something and that if Wak wouldn’t, then he would.
According to the source, a few minutes later Bradley walked back over to the skipper and said, “I’m packing my stuff. I’m out of here.” And then he left.

Mariners General Manager Jack Zduriencik said Bradley is still a member of the team. “Milton is part of what we’re doing,” he told me this morning. “Anything that happens between a manager and his players should be handled internally. Sometimes tempers flare over the course of a season. Wakamatsu thought it was time for Milton to come out.”

Meanwhile, Carlos Silva began to give up the home runs that Fnarf predicted he would, though his teammates got the win to leave him with a no-decision. But still. . . . and let me note, lest I be accused as usual of pro-Cubs bias, that the Cubs unloaded Sammy Sosa after the final game of 2004, when he left early on the last game of a wasted season. Professional ballplayers do not do this. Ever.

UPDATE: Espn on it.

20 replies on “Not to say I told you so. . .”

  1. Amen. I’m shocked he made it through April without incident. Silva will slip but he’ll still win 9 or 10. Good deal for the Cubs. They won’t take the Cards down but at least he won’t pack up his shit and bail in the middle of a loss.

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  4. Whoops. Well, I have to tender an apology for clearly skipping over your second paragraph. Sorry, CF. Man, what a boneheaded move…

  5. It’s still a little unclear whether he was frustrated and Wak and the coaches told him to take the rest of the game off (in an attempt to give him a chance to deal with these issues, which may be depression and other things) or if he actually “quit” on the team. Hey, if the guy has legitimate mental and emotional problems, I’m glad the team is willing to get him help. If it’s depression, it could be a chemical thing that isn’t his fault.

    The constant comparisons between Bradley and Silva are increasingly unfair as such comparisons usually are after a trade. Silva is out-peforming expectations; Bradley is about on par with what we expected attitude-wise, except his hitting has been worse. It happens. Raul Ibanez got better after we traded him, and then he wasn’t as good as his KC years when we got him back.

  7. The Mariners are a great team and knew what they were getting into when they aquired Bradley and his lace wig. What with, how easily they are removed and such, it would be obvious from any commentator’s point of view the problems that they could potentially cause but that was a trade off the Mariners management decided they would risk.

  8. Miltie apparently doesn’t care about my bet with CF that he’ll play in over 100 games. Very selfish. Come on back Miltie, you can only sit out a few games.

  10. The only thing I’ll add is the day after he left the ballpark, he attended a team function at Lakeridge Elementary talking about his mother and trying to inspire the kids.

    Brewer put it well in today’s Times saying maybe he’s not a malcontent, a cancer, he’s just somebody that can’t control himself and needs real medical care.

    Nobody knows what will happen, but going to the elementary school with the team and maybe realizing this is his last chance will help him seek the legit medical help he needs.

    (Wow, I sound like a MB apologist. Soon I’ll be in makeup on Youtube screaming, “Leaave Miltie aloooone!”)

  11. I have to say that I bailed on that game, too, well before Bradley stormed out in disgust. The Mariners have to be loving the timely distraction of Bradley’s implosion this week, because all the hopes of their fan base for the season were already imploding. At least this gives them something to claim to be addressing and trying to fix. Otherwise, it’s a long wait to see what we can get in trade for Cliff Lee so the team can rebuild for next season.

  12. I wonder if this is going to be Milton’s turning point or not? He has gone through anger management before (right after throwing that bottle into the stands in LA, I believe) and it worked for a little while.

    I hate to see this because I look at Milton Bradley and I don’t see a “bad boy” a la Kanye West, I see someone who is in pain and only knows how to lash out. The fact that he’s a well-paid ballplayer doesn’t make me think, Oh, he’s spoiled or whatever it is that his judges and haters believe. He kinda reminds me of hockey player Theo Fleury, who turned out to have issues from childhood sex abuse at the hands of one of his coaches.

  13. All I’m going to add is, if you were making a list of what’s wrong with the Mariners right now, Milton would be about tenth. Saint Griffey’s done ten times the damage that Bradley has, but no one writes column after column about his inability to hit grade-school pitching.

  15. @ Fnarf

    Yeah, you’re right: I’m being lazy. Bradley’s far from the worst thing going on with the Mariners right now, but he’s the car wreck I cannot take my eyes off of. And there’s a sense that he might actually be helping the team by distracting the media and fans from the other problems. And Peter F is right: what will the M’s get for Free Agent to Be Cliff Lee. . . ?

  16. I don’t know why anyone would hit the panic button yet – we’re only 3 games out thanks to a completely mediocre division and the m’s have been losing (mostly) close games, all they have to do is have a few of their hitters hit closer to their career norms (dumping sweeney and griffey would help too) and they’re right back in there.

    RE: Milton: I’m not sure who you’re saying “I told you so” to. Everyone knew there would be plenty of crazy, the question was if the team would be able to still get production out of him. So far he hasn’t hit much but Bradley seems willing to keep trying.

  17. @19, even if the Mariners “win” the AL Worst to crawl across the finish line into the postseason, can you say with a straight face that this team could avoid being swept out of the playoffs in the first few games? Tampa Bay is the first good team they’ve played this season, and in this series, the Ms look like a Little League team that showed up at the wrong ball field by accident.

    Attendance is dropping through the floor at Safeco, partly because it’s no fun to watch the Ms struggle to score even one run per game.

  18. Peter F, I have far more confidence of the M’s in the postseason than the regular season. If if if they stay healthy, we’ll have Lee, Felix and Bedard pitching a large majority of postseason innings. Even with a shitty offense, a trade or two could make this team the scariest one in a short series.

  19. “The way we’re going to do that is just, to love on him,” Sweeney said. “His track record shows he’s had some ups and downs. But we can embrace him and get him to click the way he did in Texas [in 2008, Bradley’s All-Star season].

    “He’s a beautiful man, with a beautiful heart.”

    Now the Slog has to get behind that, right?

  20. I will continue cheering for Bradley (and, @16, Griffey) as long as they are on the team. I am one who believes that as a Seattleite and Mariner fan, it is my duty to continue unwaveringly to suport every member of the team, but that’s not the only reason I do it in this case. I believe that acquiring Bradley will turn out to be a positive thing for the Mariners. And maybe coming to Seattle will turn out to be a positive thing for Bradley. Can we collectively decide to have a little faith?

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