So now the question is whose to blame: Milton Bradley or first-base umpire Mike Winters?
If you think I'm going to blame the disgruntled man who was named after a board game manufacturer, you haven't been reading this blog long enough.
First off, Bradley was upset and reacted to what he thought was a bad call on a 3rd strike. So why would an umpire at first base need to further any
argument 3 innings later? I'm sure working under crew chief Bruce
Froemming would help uphold the integrity of these umpires.. Yeah, okay....
According to Bradley, Winters called him a "Bleeping piece of Bleep". Wait, is that profanity? I think you're overreacting here Milton! But if the Padres first base coach Bobby
Meachum (uh, the memories!) is siding with this guy, you would think the umpire said something out of line, contrary to
Froemming's claim that Winters simply told Bradley to "knock it off".
The rest of the story is now the beginning of the end to Milton's season. Manager Bud Black restrained Bradley, giving him a season ending knee-injury in the process. If I had to guess, if it weren't for the injury, Bradley would have been thrown from the game and suspended a few games, during a playoff push, nonetheless.
But will anything come of Mike Winters and his prodding of a loose-cannon type player? I wouldn't hold my breath. Todd
Helton, the first baseman of the opposing Colorado Rockies, would be the only impartial person who was there for the entire exchange. He should probably speak out, but I don't blame him for not doing so. He is on a team that is also in a playoff race and a distraction like this really doesn't benefit him or his team. The only hope is if Selig somehow questions
Helton on the interaction. Again, I'm not holding my breath.
I've kind of been routing for the Padres this season, only because they were my
pre-season favorite for the
NL West. To be honest, I don't really care about the Padres at this point. Winning the wild card does not give my
pre-season division winner picks any credibility. If the
NL Wild Card race continues to go down to the wire, you'll hear a lot about this incident in weeks to come in Southern California. Milton Bradley was doing pretty well on an offensively lacking team.
Ahh, another day, another official abusing his power with zero consequences....
If there's any justice, the Padres will keep winningUpdate 9/26 4:16 PMOkay, is MLB reading my blog? Maybe I'm not paying close enough attention, but not even an hour after writing the initial entry to this post I see the headline "
MLB suspends umpire over confrontation".
Hooray for something actually being done! MLB, I am impressed.