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Milton Bradley Faces Suspension for Being Milton Bradley After Arguing With Ump

Apr 17, 2009, 4:15 PM UTC

Milton Bradley has experienced some anger management issues in the past. But he’s claimed to have put that behind him, and now just wants to play baseball and help the Cubs lose in the playoffs. So yesterday, when he was ejected for arguing balls and strikes, it was sure to have people overreacting and expecting the worse. Did he attack the ump? Did he need to be restrained by teammates? â†µâ†µActually, no, none of that was the case. Bradley erupted -- for very good reason -- at a called third strike while pinch hitting in the 6th with the bases loaded. The game was tied, it was obviously a huge situation, and the ump rung him up on a ball that was clearly low and inside after calling a pitch that was about six inches outside a strike earlier in the at-bat. But Bradley only let the anger overtake him for a moment, yelling at the ump for less than 10 seconds before heading to the showers.â†µ

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â†µAs far as baseball arguments and ejections go, it was rather tame. But it was Milton Bradley, which means the umpires are going to try to get him suspended:â†µ

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â†µâ‡¥Second base umpire Dan Iassogna told the Chicago Tribune that a report was being sent to the commissioner's office because there was "contact" in the incident. Any player making contact with an umpire faces the possibility of a fine and suspension. â†µ

â†µYou can watch the replay of the incident at the 45-second mark of the game highlights. There’s no evidence of Bradley making any contact with the ump, although it’s possible their bills touched. If they did, it was completely incidental, and just as much the ump’s fault as Bradley’s.â†µâ†µIf he is suspended, the Cubs plan to appeal it. His teammates certainly have his back on this one, including Derek Lee:â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥“I like it,” Lee said. “He said what he had to say and walked off. ... He’s intense, it was a big situation, he wanted to do well and he got upset. That’s OK. He didn’t do anything malicious. He was coming out of the game anyway.”â†µâ†µWrong, Derek. It’s Milton Bradley. He even breathes maliciously.â†µ

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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