After what was clearly one of the strangest incidents in the history of baseball, on Sunday, Milton Bradley, who has had a few…how shall we say…”incidents” in the past, was not only ejected by 1st base umpire Mike Winters, but he also inadvertently had his ACL torn by his manager, Bud Black, when Black tried to restrain Bradley (Bradley will now miss the rest of the season). Afterwards, Bradley had this to say about the incident,
“…[It was]the most unprofessional and most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen…It’s terrible. And now, because of him, my knee’s hurt…If this costs me my season because of that, he needs to be reprimanded. I’m taking some action. I’m not going to stand pat and accept this because I didn’t do nothing wrong.”
As most of you probably already know, the whole incident started after a Bradley strike out in the 5th inning, of a game between the Padres and Rockies, when Winters thought Bradley tossed his bat at home plate umpire Brian Runge. After Bradley singled in the 7th inning, he got to first base and asked Winters if he told Runge that he (Bradley) threw his bat at Runge. Winters said he did say that, and all hell broke loose. Padres first base coach Bobby Meacham tried to restrain Bradley, and when he was unable to do so, Black grabbed a hold of Bradley as well, taking him to the ground, when Bradley subsequently injured his knee.
So, who was in the wrong in this crazy situation? Mike Winters. Major League Baseball has suspended Mike Winters for the rest of the season. The reason given? For using profanity aimed at Bradley. All I can say is, never doubt Milton Bradley again. It’s kind of funny how people build up a reputation, and they are just automatically blamed (or praised depending on the situation) just based off of their past experiences.
The craziest part about this whole situation? Mike Winters could have just cost the Padres a chance at the playoffs (especially with Mike Cameron getting hurt earlier in the game). Even worse for Bradley? This will certainly impact his free agency status (he will be a free agent at the end of the year. Bradley is represented by Seth Levinson of ACES (athletes careers enhanced and secured, INC.) you can find contact information for ACES here (the listing is for his brother Sam Levinson)
ESPN: Rockies vs. Padres recap
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