I don't think I could give a fair description of this, but the look on Wedge's face provides a 10,000-word narrative with one simple look.
Apologies if this appeared in a game thread somewhere this weekend.
And of course, he was DFA'd today.
about 1 year ago
rolub
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Well, let me put it to you this way: There was never any good reason for us to be on bad terms. We should be on great terms now, but then we should have been on great terms before, too. So who knows what tomorrow will bring?
There is a moment, towards the end of this article, where you almost admit to learning something. That was the heart of the LL myopia on Bradley; your readers expressly rejected the possibility that non-LL people (such as fans of his prior teams) might have already learned something that LL readers didn’t already know. The LL community described itself — repeatedly! — as far, far too smart to be able to learn anything from fans of other teams.
Sadly, your article concludes that nothing was really learned. As I’ve mentioned before, getting along in potentially tense situations comes down to having the benefit of the doubt. Our communities had that at one point, at least briefly, but it got lost at some point. I would submit to you that LL was guilty of not giving visitors the benefit of the doubt — quick to accuse, vilify and overreact, ironically just like Bradley himself.
If you want to make a change … maybe start with the blog in the mirror.
by Jay on May 10, 2011 9:48 PM EDT up reply actions 4 recs
beef!*
*not actually beef
"An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools" -Hemingway
by notthatnoise on May 11, 2011 9:28 AM EDT up reply actions
What an interesting career he had. Wildly talented, but mentally ill. I’m actually really surprised it ended in a whimper, instead of a bang.
Hopefully, once he removes himself from the grind of pro baseball, he can work on himself and get to a good spot. Not sure if his chronic victim mentality will ever allow that to happen.
OAK could have ’dre Ethier and Carlos Gonzalez on their squad right now?
by JulioBernazard on May 10, 2011 1:29 PM EDT up reply actions
But then they’d have to pay them.
"I’ll happily embrace elevated hopes if that is the price to pay." - APV
On Twitter at @grantgw - sports and Cleveland and Columbus stuff
by woodsmeister on May 10, 2011 2:59 PM EDT up reply actions
Taubensee for Lofton
Lofton and Embree for Justice and Grissom
Justice for Westbrook and Day
Day for Bradley
Bradley for Gutierrez and Brown
Gutierrez for Valbuena and Smith
So basically, Taubensee and Embree for Grissom, Westbrook, Brown, Valbuena and Smith — plus about 2-3 years each from Justice, Bradley and Gutierrez — plus the best five years of Lofton’s career.
You left out three months of David Segui!
Though I look right at home, I still feel like an exile
by Manhattan Tribe Fan on May 10, 2011 6:13 AM EDT up reply actions
three months of David Segui
that sounds like a 30 for 30 doc that just missed the cut for production.
You are reading my signature.
What in God’s name did Hart see in him?
by Gradyforpresident on May 10, 2011 2:39 PM EDT up reply actions
Gotta admit it: Ever since Jimmy Piersall I’ve luved crazy baseball players. Brandley’s no exception.
Our best players wear suits.
Brandley
Milton Bradley/Michael Brantley hybrid?
My watch is broken... it's stuck on Tribe Time
#suckitLaw
That would actually be pretty awesome. A little fire, a little pop. Can draw a walk and make consistent contact.
RALLY SIG
Someone should link that explosive LL thread when some LGT’ers deigned to suggest that signing Milton Bradly might not be the brilliant move they all deemed it to be.
But it sort of worked out. It didn’t turn out as badly as some thought it might. Milton hasn’t burned his bridges in Seattle, to my knowledge. In a weird way the Wedge and Bradley reunion was a heartwarming story of redemption.
If you mean worked out in the sense that he didn’t go to prison or something. His .649 OPS with Seattle begs to differ.
Yes, it’s that he didn’t go to prison.
Everyone here knows all about b-ref, fangraphs, and wikipedia.
by jhon on May 9, 2011 9:10 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Since when is not going to prison an accomplishment, even for Milton?
My watch is broken... it's stuck on Tribe Time
#suckitLaw
by Turkmenbashi on May 9, 2011 10:16 PM EDT up reply actions
No kidding. Just thought you were a bit harsh on Dorn up there.
My watch is broken... it's stuck on Tribe Time
#suckitLaw
by Turkmenbashi on May 9, 2011 11:55 PM EDT up reply actions
This does give us the occasion to reflect on just how bad Jack Z is at recovering something of value from forlorn talents. For an alleged super-scout, Z really sucks at scouting.
My man. For someone who isn’t really known for scouting I still think he had a very good track record with asset reclamation or whatever you wanna call it. He had a well-known bad run with trying to fill out the ‘pen, but at least he struck it rich with Betancourt, salvaged Howry, etc. I don’t share is fashion philosophy, however.
Milton Bradley: negative 0.6 WAR with Seattle. It probably would have worked out better if they just had cut Silva.
Jack Z
is infallible. I don’t abbreviate his surname because I don’t know it, but out of deference to the supreme power of his intellect.
by JulioBernazard on May 9, 2011 5:42 PM EDT up reply actions 4 recs
Wait, did I just actually rec something primarily for the sarcastic use of a subject line?
Now I’m confused.
by PBH on May 9, 2011 6:29 PM EDT up reply actions
As much as I’m sure the guy had problems, I think there is a tiny little grain of truth to all of his complaints. At some point the umpires were probably giving him a hard time based on reputation, and I’m sure he had to deal with a lot of stupid stuff from fans. The incident that sticks out in my mind is when he had a beer bottle thrown at him. I can understand why Ron Artest ran into the stands in Detroit, and I can understand why Bradley got mad. He also complained about racist comments in Chicago from fans, and having been to a couple of games at Wrigley I believe it.
"An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools" -Hemingway
by notthatnoise on May 9, 2011 9:07 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
He also got paid millions of dollars to play baseball. At some point you have to man up and learn to shed the reputation instead of feeding into it.
RALLY SIG
I don’t care how much you make. That depends on what the market is willing to pay for your talent, not how much crap you should have to put up with.
Major leaguers have all kinds of demands and requirements placed on them that you and I would never put up with, unless we were looking at a salary to match. It’s part of the job, and yes, that includes fan heckling, and yes, that includes highly objectionable heckling — I mean, is there any other kind?
I don’t know, I was at a three-game set against the Padres in ’03 at which one dude just kept yelling “HEEYYYYYYYYYYY NADDDDDDDDDYYYYYYYYYY!” at Xavier Nady. Probably technically heckling, but doubtfully highly objectionable.
How that guy and I ended up in the same section for three straight games is beyond me.
Trombone/creamy/soda.
I find a difference between heckling, even objectionable heckling, and racism or getting bottles thrown at you. I understand the higher set of demands, but he’s being paid millions of dollars to play baseball well, not to put up with something that we wouldn’t expect anyone else to put up with. If someone said something racist about or threw something at a CEO, we wouldn’t go ‘well he’s paid a lot, so that comes with the job.’ We’d realize that the line of civility has blatantly been crossed. This is not to defend Milton, he’s clearly shown he has issues that need to be resolved, but i refuse to accept the belief that someone’s salary allows us to dehumanize them.
by 7foot3 on May 11, 2011 2:33 PM EDT up reply actions 3 recs
Very well said
My watch is broken... it's stuck on Tribe Time
#suckitLaw
by Turkmenbashi on May 12, 2011 11:59 PM EDT up reply actions
First, our expectations of a top CEO would not actually be all that different.
Second, CEOs certainly are paid to deal with the public, but they are not entertainers. Ballplayers are paid specifically to provide public performances in front of tens of thousands of people.
Ballplayers are paid specifically to provide public performances in front of tens of thousands of people.
I don’t understand why this makes it ok to throw bottles at them.
"An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools" -Hemingway
by notthatnoise on May 13, 2011 12:29 PM EDT up reply actions
Who said it was?
We’re not discussing whether it’s okay to throw bottles. We’re discussing what range of reactions is expected of ballplayers when something non-okay happens.
I don’t care how much you make. That depends on what the market is willing to pay for your talent, not how much crap you should have to put up with.
your response:
Major leaguers have all kinds of demands and requirements placed on them that you and I would never put up with, unless we were looking at a salary to match.There really is no other way to interpret this than “they make a lot of money and thus should put up with it.”
"An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools" -Hemingway
by notthatnoise on May 14, 2011 11:03 PM EDT up reply actions
My point being, they should not have bottles thrown at them, and if they do, they shouldn’t be expected to react differently than any other human being simply because they make more money.
"An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools" -Hemingway
by notthatnoise on May 14, 2011 11:05 PM EDT up reply actions
It isn’t the fact that they make more money that raises the expectation. It’s the fact that they are paid huge sums of money specifically to perform in front of mass audiences.
It isn’t okay for any one fan to throw a bottle.
In the aggregate, though, 162 games a year, perhaps 4-5 million tickets sold to those games … is it reasonable to assume that a few incidents like this are going to happen? Yes, it is quite reasonable.
Therefore, is it reasonable to expect that a professional, major league ballplayer will be prepared to handle himself well in the fact of one such incident? Yes, again, quite reasonable.
No. They shouldn’t have to put up with it in the sense that it shouldn’t happen. But many things do happen in the world that shouldn’t happen, and they should have to deal with it appropriately.
You seem to be confusing accountability for the action with accountability for the reaction. It is not a zero-sum question.
I think our expectations would be different because a CEO has almost certainly received the proper training in how to respond to this. No doubt about it, Bradley has repeatedly taken the wrong response. We’re on the same page if we think its best if Bradley would just shut up for once in his life. I’m just saying that racism/assault are vastly different than some drunk jerk trying to get in your head, and while its easy to ignore the latter, I can easily understand someone not putting up with the former.
If I could negative rec this comment, I would.
by TKilbane on May 10, 2011 3:24 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
If I could negative rec this comment, I would.
by JulioBernazard on May 10, 2011 11:35 AM EDT up reply actions
Because un-intelligent drunks waste time on lightning-rod fools?
by stuart dean on May 10, 2011 9:18 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
I think there is a tiny, little grain of truth to all of his complaints
Let me be clear that I still think most of it was in his head and he’s got plenty of issues to work out.
"An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools" -Hemingway
by notthatnoise on May 10, 2011 9:44 AM EDT up reply actions
I once complained a gazillion years ago to my Dad that I had been unjustly blamed for some misdeed at Summer camp. He reminded me that this might not have happened if I hadn’t been justly blamed for so many other transgressions.
by stuart dean on May 10, 2011 10:35 AM EDT up reply actions
This is true, and an important point. He wouldn’t have received extra scrutiny if he didn’t bring it on himself. That doesn’t necessarily mean it was fair for umpires to throw him out or call a strike where they wouldn’t have to another guy. He earned his reputation, no question. That doesn’t make it ok for umpires to treat him unfairly.
Again let me reiterate that 99% of his problems were in his own head.
"An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools" -Hemingway
by notthatnoise on May 10, 2011 11:12 AM EDT up reply actions
If the umpires weren’t so bad, he wouldn’t get DFA’d so often.
by YoDaddyWags on May 9, 2011 9:46 PM EDT reply actions 2 recs
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