Life with Milton

It hasn't been easy for Milton Bradley. Milton, my man, you need to sit down with Jimmy Piersall (79 years old) and have a chat with him. I see a lot of parallels between the two of you. (Readers: After you are finished reading about Milton, please scroll down to 'Things to read' in the left hand column and click on Jimmy Piersall and you shall see similar behavior patterns. Milton, I hope you can last in MLB (3-4 more teams) until you are at least 37 years old. You could have a good career ahead of you and then get yourself into broadcasting. You have a lot to say. Maybe you and Ryan Lefebvre might get a chance to team up in a booth someplace. Who knows, the two of you could end up broadcasting for the Staten Island Yankees in the NY-Penn league. Or even the NY Yankees....at least you wouldn't be babbling all kind of useless, idiotic 'Yankee this, Yankee that' jibberish!!

The oft-injured Bradley has a history of losing his temper. Here are some of the altercations that Milton has been involved in:

*He slammed a plastic bottle at the feet of a fan in the right-field seats at Dodger Stadium in 2004 after someone threw it on the field. With San Diego in the pennant chase last September, he tore the ACL in his right knee when he was spun to the ground by Padres manager Bud Black, who was trying to keep him from an umpire.

*He was suspended for five games after slamming the bottle, and had a four-game suspension for tossing a bag of balls onto the field after an ejection.

*There was a dugout confrontation with Cleveland manager Eric Wedge during spring training in 2004 before getting traded to Los Angeles. Bradley claimed umpire Mike Winters baited the player into the confrontation and directed a profanity at him last September. Winters was suspended the final five days of the regular season and didn't work the postseason.

"We weren't singling out Milton Bradley," Lefebvre said. "We also spent a lot of time complimenting Milton Bradley, but that's not what he heard when he was in the clubhouse.
"We weren't tearing up Milton Bradley. I told [Washington and Daniels] this wasn't a Milton Bradley rip session, but just based on the pictures we've seen in this series of him walking to the dugout all the way to right field, dropping his bat, making gestures to the fans in right field and above the dugout and taunting them. He's the only person in baseball I know that does that type of stuff."