The Other Side of the Milton Bradley Story
More than enough has been said about Milton Bradley’s latest comments. So much so that I didn’t even want to write about it. I’ve mostly stayed away from commenting on his personality, as well as whether or not he is a “cancer”. I never wanted him on the Cubs because I think he is a DH, injury prone, coming off a contract year and there were other left-handed hitters I wanted, like Adam Dunn.
But I think it’s important to see the other side of the argument, especially when people are piling on Bradley. I found it over at And Counting, a pretty fantastic Cubs blog. Here’s what he had to say about the issue:
“The drop from first place on July 31 to second place (a full 9 games behind the Cardinals) here on August 27 sickens me as much as it does anyone. But the specific symptom irritating me now is that the Cub fans are (aside from Aaron Miles) focusing their slide-induced angst on one player more than any other. Here are his stats in that span of time:
G: 18 / HR: 3 / RBI: 9 / BA: .303 / OBP: .410 / SLG: .500 / OPS: .910
That’s who’s getting booed. The guy with the .910 OPS is the one getting skewered, roasted, shredded, and slathered in barbecue sauce by Cub fans while August gobbles up the Chicago Cubs. If you’re okay with that, it’s probably because you know that player is Milton Bradley. You don’t care what his stats are, you hate him, and you hate him even more for calling you out on it.”
It’s a really good post, filled with some humor about how to resolve the Bradley issue.
But then yesterday Bradley went 0-5 and followed that up by demeaning a few of his teammates in a postgame interview. He said that if you want politically correct comments, reporters can go talk to Geovany Soto, Ryan Theriot and Derrek Lee. Ouch. I also seriously doubt the racism charges, and Bradley has not come out with any specifics in regard to what has been said to him. I’ve been going to Wrigley for over 30 years. I have never, ever heard a racial slur from a fan.
I bet all this would be moot–even if the taunts were true–if Bradley had twice as many homers as he has now and was hitting 60 points higher.
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I live near DC so I get to see Dunn hitting bombs all the time-makes me sick. I agree that if he was living up to his contract (even remotely), the boo birds would subside. Instead, he has chosen to alienate teammates, fans and the city of Chicago as a whole. It is killing to watch this team right now.
i hate u milton
Thanks for the shout out to the blog. Unfortunately, yeah, everything Milton did on and off the field yesterday pretty much undermined anything good I had to say about him. I actually like having a bad guy on the team, because the Cubs have made a tradition out of being soft nice guys.
Maybe the most interesting thing to come out of this is the wide disparity of reactions on the racism issue. Some people say they’ve heard racial stuff lots of times. Others, like you, never hear that kind of thing at Wrigley. Nick Friedell did a nice piece on it here for ESPN Chicago:
http://espn.go.com/chicago/columns/blog?post=4427837&name=friedell
If anything, it shows that racist comments are most likely pretty isolated.
I agree improved performance could help his rep, but if you look at it, his salary and stats match Kosuke almost exactly. Kosuke gets some boos, but nothing like the standard Milton reception.
Oh well. At least it’s something to focus on other than the baseball being played in Wrigley lately. That’s ugly.
Fukudome actually still has better numbers and is a much better defender. Plus he keeps his mouth shut. He heard it last year for sure.
Thanks for dropping by!
HA! So you’ve been going to Wrigley for 30 years and you’ve NEVER heard a racial comment? That’s more ridiculous than that Bingo story.
I haven’t sat in the bleachers in about 10 years and the single reason I quit buying those specific tickets was because I have daughters now and don’t want them to hear “adults” swearing at ball players and many times using racial epithets. Can’t believe for a minute that anyone who has sat in the bleachers more than a handful of times hasn’t heard the same. But I guess when you have your Cubbie blue homer glasses on, anything is possible.
I don’t lie. I have never, ever heard a racial epithet. Which is not to say that they don’t happen. I will say that I have not sat in the bleachers in many years either. But the point is that Cubs fans aren’t racists. A few? Maybe?