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Ken Griffey, Jr.’s baseball career is about to come to an end, probably within the next month, according to this column in the Tacoma News Tribune . According to the column, Griffey, 40, who is hitting .208, with no home runs and five RBI in 23 games this season as the left-handed-hitting DH for the Seattle Mariners, will be asked to retire or will be released after he apparently could not be used as a pinch hitter in a game last week because he was sleeping in the clubhouse.

“He was asleep in the clubhouse,” one player said. “He’d gone back about the fifth inning to get a jacket and didn’t come back. I went back in about the seventh inning—and he was in his chair, sound asleep.”

The other player, who knows Griffey a little better, tried to rationalize. “He doesn’t sleep well at night, he’s away from his family, he’s comfortable in the clubhouse,” he said. They could have awakened him…”

It’s hardly a capital offense, but it’s a telling piece of anecdotal evidence. This isn’t the Griffey of 2009.

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You know how they like to say that some players eat, drink and sleep baseball?

Well, it looks like Ken Griffey, Jr. took the sleeping part a bit too literally.

According to a report from the Tacoma News Tribune , Griffey missed an opportunity to pinch hit at a game last week because he was sleeping in the clubhouse.

So Junior was asleep at the wheel of the SS Mariner ship gone astray? More bad news in a season that, so far, has failed to live up to Seattle fans expectations.

Maybe it’s time to quit calling him “The Kid.” Griffey is, after all, 40-years-old. In fact, maybe it’s just time that he quit, period.

It’s always kind of sad when you see the great players not knowing when it’s time to say goodbye. Memories of an aging Willie Mays playing for the Mets as a shadow of his former self are painful. Likewise, watching Griffey was tough enough lately, and now this.

While wondering why they didn’t simply wake him up, this whole thing could have been avoided if players like Griffey knew when it was time to call it a career.

Well, easier said than done —it’s a difficult thing for a former star player to accept. All his life, he’s been told how great he was. Now he’s being told that he just can’t do it anymore.

The truth can be a wicked stepmother at times.

Griffey is batting .205/.265/.234 this season with only two extra-base hits and zero home runs for a last-place Mariners club that is in a tough position with a guy who started his career with the team, playing tremendously from 1989-1999.

It would be so much easier if he would retire. Instead, they may have to release him.

Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu refused to divulge Griffey’s transgressions.

Look, I don’t care how great a player the man once was, you send a bad message to your players by covering up for him.  Meanwhile, the reason shouldn’t matter either. It was reported that a teammate claims that Griffey hasn’t been sleeping well at home.

Perhaps he has too much money stuffed under his mattress?

Griffey has made about $100 million in this game, so it certainly shouldn’t be money keeping him away from retirement.

As for the M’s, it’s hard to fathom why you would want a guy like him around at all. He’s not hitting and even his famed positive clubhouse persona has now taken a hit.

I mean, he’s not exactly setting a good example for the younger players, is he?

All good things come to an end, and the Griffey express seems to be at the end of the line. 

Someone please nudge him, so he doesn’t miss the last stop.

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This article from the Tacoma Times indicates that Ken Griffey, Jr.’s days as a Mariner are numbered.  Aside from his awful start at the plate and the fact that he can’t play the field because of his sore and gimpy knees, he’s apparently not been the force in the clubhouse he was last year. 

In fact, the article reports an anecdote that Griffey was not used as a pinch hitter in a recent game, because he was asleep in the clubhouse in the late innings.

I’ve long felt that keeping old guys with little left to contribute on the field around because of their supposed great influence in the clubhouse is way overrated.  Better to have someone on the bench who can actually help you win some ballgames out on the field with a timely hit, a great defensive play, or scoring the run from second on a short hit to the outfield.

The Mariners decided to bring back Griffey in November 2009 for a $2.35 million 2010 (according to Cot’s baseball contracts ).  I thought it was a mistake at the time .

In December 2009, the M’s acquired Milton Bradley with the hope that having Griffey around as an older brother figure would get Miltie to straighten up and fly right.  A fool’s errand, I thought.

It didn’t work out that way, of course, and there were a lot of reasons at the end of the 2009 season to think that neither move would. 

At this point, the M’s would probably be best served by the old two-for-one (to paraphrase Dodgers’ announcer Vin Scully) and dump both Griffey and Milton Bradley in one fell swoop.

The Mariners are dead last in the AL at 12-19, but it’s only early May, and they’re only 5.5 games back.  It would be a good time to do a little house-cleaning and make a fresh start of it with 130 games still left to play.

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I am going to put this next story in the “We had to blame someone, so let’s blame someone who has nothing to do with why we are struggling” category.

The Seattle Mariners fired hitting coach Alan Cockrell yesterday. Alonzo Powell was promoted from Triple-A Tacoma to replace Cockrell. Here is the reason for the firing according to GM Jack Zduriencik.

“Sometimes just the same message from a different messenger sometimes carries some weight, but it’s certainly apparent we’re not doing what we should be doing offensively,” Zduriencik said. “Certainly guys can look within and they should. Every single player here should evaluate themselves and ask, ‘What am I doing? Where are my contributions at?’ I know the effort is there. There’s no question about that. It’s just a matter of the production.

“So maybe there’s a little key here the new guy can unlock.”

I am sorry Jack, but there is no key to unlock here. You have neglected your offense for the past two season and now this is the bed you have made.

Here is how these situations usually work in sports:

– Team enters the season with unrealistic expectations.

– Team thinking they better than they really are gets off to an extremely slow start. In this case, the Mariners are in last place in the AL West with a 12-19 record

– Management wants to “send a message” so they fire an “underneath” coach, who has very little to do with why the team is struggling.

– If team continues to struggle, management will then fire the head coach or manager during the season and replace him with a lame-duck interim manager.

– At the end of the year, the team fires the entire staff and replaces them with a new staff.

I really see this scenario playing out for the Mariners this year. This lineup is just terrible and I really don’t see how it could get any better unless they make a major trade.

I was watching the Mariners – Angels game on Friday when Jered Weaver was pitching a no-hitter and I laughed when I saw due up for the Mariners were Casey Kotchman- Franklin Gutierrez – Ken Griffey Jr.

What’s so funny about this you ask? These are the Mariners 3-4-5 hitters. Kotchman wouldn’t be a No. 3 hitter on the Mariners’ Triple A team.

Regardless of who the hitting coach is for the Mariners, I don’t see them turning this offense around. There are no impact bats in the middle of the lineup and there are too many guys who are automatic outs.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg

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Milton Bradley…thanks for finally telling us what we’ve known for 11 years…that you’ve got mad issues!

In this portion of his bizarre Game of Life, Bradley went 0 for 2 (two strikeouts) Tuesday night during a home game vs. the Tampa Bay Rays. After the second punch-out, Bradley supposedly stormed into the clubhouse and left Safeco Field.

The second strikeout was after a called third strike. Bradley wanted to argue with the home plate umpire Kerwin Danley. M’s manager Don Wakamatsu urged Bradley to calm down. Bradley was convinced that if Wakamatsu didn’t do anything about the incident, that he would.

After that, the details are murky. Some reports said that Bradley told the manager that he “packing up his stuff and leaving.” Others simply said that he’s done and disappointed about his low performance on the team. Bradley did leave the ballpark and didn’t return.

Later on, Bradley texted MLB Network’s Peter Gammons that any reports that insisted that he was either leaving the Mariners, or Major League Baseball for that matter, were misconstrued.

The Mariners followed that up by giving their troubled (more like troublesome) outfielder an indefinite leave of absence. The reason he and the team gave was that he is going through emotional and personal trauma right now and it’s affecting his performance at the plate.

I would’ve figured Bradley was just joining the club. After all, the team is batting .225 and slugging .314, next to last in both the AL and MLB. Only the Chicago White Sox are ranked lower at .223. And their SLG is over 80 points higher than Seattle’s.

In a year where many (myself included) expected the M’s to make a run at the AL West division championship this year, they’re off to a slow start. Only 3 of their regular hitters have batting averages over .220…that’s right…. .220! Ichiro is at .308, Franklin Gutierrez .321 and Jack Wilson is at .253. The rest…

Jose Lopez-.214
Chone Figgins-.198 (offseason acquisition from Anaheim)
Ken Griffey, Jr-.216
Casey Kotchman-.202
Reed Johnson-.133
Adam Moore-.163
Eric Byrnes-.094

By Mariners standards, hitting-wise, .214 is like hitting .300 for this year’s Detroit Tigers, who are No. 1 in MLB in hitting. Considering that they finished 85-77 last year after going an abominable 61-101 in 2008, this is not too good so far. The cloud over this team is about as much as the clouds that seemingly are stationary over the city of Seattle on a normal basis.

The details of Milton Bradley’s personal issues may be a mystery, but one thing isn’t…Milton Bradley himself.

Ever since arriving into Major League Baseball, he has been a ticking time bomb ready to explode in your face without warning. Despite his potential as a consistent All-Star  (as he was in 2008), he has played for eihgt teams in the span of 11 MLB seasons—the Expos, Indians, Dodgers, A’s, Padres, Rangers, Cubs, and now the Mariners.

Just in recent years, he has been just that—a ticking time bomb. Ironically, he literally exploded in the face of a 1st base umpire without warning in 2007. While playing with the San Diego Padres in the latter portion of the ’07 season, he vehemently argued with Mike Winters.

Home plate ump Brian Runge said that Bradley threw his bat in Winters’s direction. Bud Black who was the Friars’ skipper at the time tried to restrain Bradley, but he argued with the ump so imposingly that he tore his ACL in the process. He would eventually miss the Padres one-game playoff vs. the Colorado Rockies…

which Colorado won because of a controversial call involving Matt Holliday at home plate.

Then came 2008 in Texas. It looked like (at least on the field) that Milton Bradley had finally found his place where he belongs. He hit .321 with the Rangers and was selected as the starting DH for the American League at the 2008 All Star Game at the old Yankee Stadium, replacing the Red Sox’ David Ortiz. Texas finished 79-83 but second in their division behind the Angels.

Even his best year, arguably, of his career didn’t come without controversy. During his banner ‘08 season, Bradley wanted to confront Royals TV broadcaster Ryan Lefebvre about comparing Bradley to Josh Hamilton. Bradley said he didn’t want to hurt the TV announcer but was clearly hurt by what Lefebvre said. It showed that the guy does not know how to take criticism and is very sensitive when it comes to media pressure.

In 2009, he went to the wrong city if he wanted to evade “press-ure”—Chicago. The 2009 Cubs were favorites to reach the World Series that year after posting the best record in the NL at 97-64 in 2008. Their season ended with a thud with a three-game sweep in the NL Division Series by the LA Dodgers.

The relationship between Bradley and the Cubbies’ no-nonsense manager Lou Piniella was rocky from the start. The ’09 Cubs were clearly nothing like the ’08 version and he was suspended close to the end of the year.

Whether it was forgetting how many outs there were, saying that Cub fans were racist, or saying that the fans’ negativity was the reason why the team hasn’t won in over 100 years, Bradley’s stay on the North Side was over before it could ever get started. A .257, 10 HR, 42 RBI season won’t make Cub fans sing his praises any more either.

Chicago traded Bradley to Seattle for Carlos Silva. Once again, Bradley arrives on a team that’s expected to contend. Perhaps this is a place where he could get away from the media jungle that is Chicago and find his niche in a small market town like Seattle.

As it turned out…new market…Same Milton Bradley.

He didn’t wait until a month in the season was completed until he started going crazy. During a game in the fourth inning earlier this April at his former stomping grounds in Texas, he gave the fans a middle finger . It was caught by the TV cameras and is now all over the Internet. Now, we have this latest episode.

I’ll admit that I expected the Mariners to be contenders this year, given that this man finally grows up and realizes that baseball doesn’t revolve around him. After the Mariners added Cliff Lee to team with “King” Felix Hernandez to anchor the M’s pitching staff, it seemed like too much for the rest of the AL to ignore. Despite Lee’s early issues with suspensions and beanballs, he’s done his job…the Mariners offense hasn’t.

The pile of crow on my plate is only growing.

Milton Bradley is his own worst enemy. This nitwit needs to realize that he’s the problem…not TV announcers or Chicago fans, or umpires, or the media.

The racial overtones that come from this guy’s fat yap sometimes are no surprise. He accused umpires at one time of increasing the strike zone only when he’s at the plate . Bradley believes that black ballplayers get a bad rap from the media without even mentioning Jimmy Rollins’s name.

Milton needs to go into the nearest place he can find a mirror. He needs to gaze into that mirror for a long time…or at least long enough to realize that the person he sees in said mirror is the real reason for his on (and off) field issues.

He says that he needs help and asked the team for it, but he also said that he arrived in Chicago as a “changed man.” If there were ever a museum dedicated to those who made their legacies on what they did as opposed to what they said, Bradley’s past has shown that he’s Exhibit A.

So I ask, is Dave Niehaus to blame for that .214 average of yours?

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Well my friends, another series has come and gone for the Seattle Mariners, and the result remains the same. Swept. This time by the Tampa Bay Rays. The final game of the series, an 8-0 shellacking, saw them once again fail to push any runs across the plate.

Not even the return of Cliff Lee has been able to inspire the M’s, who appear to be nothing more than a shell of the fun loving team we saw in 2009.

What has happened? What’s gone wrong? Well for starters, as much credit as we gave general manager Jack Zduriencik for turning the Mariners around last year, and deservedly so, he must also take some of the blame for failing to go out and fix what has ailed the Mariners for years: offense.

Nobody can argue that pitching and defense are important, especially in a park like Safeco. However, Zduriencik ignored the fact that the lineup features not one consistent run producer. Did he expect Casey Kotchman and Milton Bradley to fix this? Kothcman has failed conclusively  everywhere he has played, and Seattle is shaping up to be no different.

Speaking of Bradley, he’s been a head-scratcher of an acquisition since day one. High risk, high reward, that was what this was all about. Well, the risk won out. After hitting just .214 with two home runs, Bradley’s anger finally boiled over after being lifted from a game by manager Don Wakamatsu following a pair of strikeouts.

Bradley is now seeking help for his personal issues, and for that I salute him. I truly hope this helps him get his mind right.

That, however, does not negate the fact that in early may this trade can already be labeled a disaster.

I’m not saying this is all Zduriencik’s fault, but a lot of this does fall on his shoulders.

He had options out there to improve the offense. He chose to ignore them. Now he must fix the mess that has been created before it’s too late.

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A Fit Full of Tasers : MLB Enjoying A Week of Hearty Storylines

It usually happens like this. Everything is going great, there’s no drama, no over-excited story that garners far more national attention than it deserves, and all of a sudden the stories hit like a thunderstorm in a Michigan summer.

Of course, we’re talking about the 2010 major league baseball season here.

A number of stories have begun to compound upon one another over the last week. From Milton Bradley’s emotional collapse to a 17-year-old Tasered in the middle of the Citizen Bank outfield grass, there is no shortage of storylines in major league baseball right now.

Umpires May Want to Taser Milton Bradley, but Listen, He Really Does Have Feelings

When it comes to Milton Bradley, the criticism seems to be easily justified.

Here we have a talented athlete, seemingly wasting away his career, a style of living most can only dream of, and a life that could be so much better if he just learned to control his emotions, something an average teen-ager should be able to do.

I think it’s rightly justified that we fume when those who are given the opportunity to flourish, flat out fail.

It seems that Bradley falls into this category.

But I beg a counter argument here, that, while surprising to myself that I actually feel this way, makes sense when you really think about it.

His history is shaky; he has flipped off countless fans, managers, players, and umpires in his 10 years and eight stops in the major leagues.

His longest tenure for one club was from 2001-2003 with the Cleveland Indians. He is a clubhouse cancer, an infectious disease.

He has never, ever, admitted that anything he ever did was, in fact, wrong.

Until Tuesday night.

Sometime after he struck out looking with the bases loaded but with several innings still left to play, an upset Milton Bradley left Safeco Field and went home.

Sometime after that, he decided that he needed help.

On Wednesday morning he called manager Don Wakamatsu and general manager Jack Zduriencik and asked if he could speak with them in person.

When he did so, he told them he is dealing with personal problems and asked the club for its help.

Pause.

He asked management for help.

After his meeting, he went to a Seattle elementary school as part of the Mariners annual education day and spoke emotionally about his mother’s financial struggles while raising him. He then went to Safeco Field and spoke to his teammates and asked them for their support at a team meeting.

Pause.

He asked his teammates for support.

Then, he willingly sat out the first of an unspecified number of games while the struggling Mariners give him time to get himself together.

See, here’s the thing, folks.

You can say all you want about how athletes make too much money to be allowed to screw up.

Go ahead, I’ve said it in the past, and while I don’t really believe it, it’s a stereotype and admit that I’ve copped out to please my audience.

But, the beauty of us, as human beings is that we all screw up.

We all have our faults and it doesn’t matter if we are presidents, athletes, judges, plumbers, pastors, or zookeepers.

We all screw up.

When those who have found incredible success do it, those who are honest with themselves can find a sense of understanding, a sense of likeness with that and a realization that these guys aren’t that much different than you and I are.

And guess what, Milton Bradley asked for help.

Let’s see you or I put aside our pride and admit that we are wrong every once in a while, forget about admitting we have major character issues.

MLB Players Apparently Want to Pack Tasers Themselves, the Way They Talk

So, this story got so big that I don’t even need to introduce it with an explanation.  

On Monday of this week (the day before Bradley’s situation), Steve Consalvi and his youthful idea made national headlines that night and prompted major league baseball and local police from each city to investigate the appropriate way to deal with fans on the field.

While some believe that the use of a Taser Gun is a little extreme, what do you honestly expect in the society we live in today?

I’ve been to dozens upon dozens of games.

The rush of running onto the field does not outweigh a misdemeanor charge.

From a player’s perspective, when a strange fan is darting toward you, like an animal charging you at a zoo, what do you think his natural reaction will be?

I don’t want anyone ever to run at me acting like a total moron, and neither do you.

Phillies right fielder Jayson Werth was prepared to strike the fan with his glove as he approached him, but once the fan realized Werth considered him hostile, he said, “No! I love you!” and ran in a different direction.

“You’re just kind of programmed to know that if somebody comes on the field, they’re fair game, because you just don’t know what they’re going to do,” Werth said. “History could repeat itself.”

The recent history?

Two fans ran onto the field and pummeled former Royals first-base coach Tom Gamboa in Chicago in 2002. A folded up pocket knife fell out of one of the fan’s pockets.

Nelson Figueroa perhaps sums it up best:

“We don’t know if this guy has a weapon on him. We don’t know if this guy is on drugs or alcohol. We didn’t even know how old he was. You don’t know what his mind-set is. This guy is obviously not happy.

“You never know. I’ve played all around the world. The Dominican, Mexico, China. You’ve got fans who get very animated at games, and at times, they throw bottles and rocks and they want to come down on the field and fight the players. “In the best interest of the player you try to have security there and whatever means necessary to keep us safe. Hopefully, it was an example and set a precedent where people realize they’re not playing.

“He was corralled. He was surrounded. It might not have been the best, most fit, youngest force we had out there to take him down. But he realized he was wrong and he knew when he started circling, the gentlemen were winded and they went to the next level. Once he tried to make a run for it and got Tasered in the back, he stopped.”

Chuckle slightly to yourself.

Think about it.

And finally, think about Honoring the Greats

Ernie Harwell (1918-2010)

Robin Roberts (1926-2010)

Joshua David Worn  is an editor, journalist, and sportswriter who spends way too much of his time studying major league baseball box scores. He has been published or linked on The San Francisco Chronicle, CBS Sports, and the Bleacher Report, among others. He publishes The Most Interesting Column in Sports  on his personal website. Contact him at thebaseballglutton@comcast.net .

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Anyone who knows anything about Milton Bradley’s career wasn’t surprised to hear about him in the news again for something other than his performance on the baseball field. 

Throughout his career, Bradley has rubbed more than a few people the wrong way and he has bounced around to eight different teams during his 11 years in the major leagues.

He’s always been a serviceable player; a career batting average of .276, with decent power, and a solid throwing arm. 

He even made the All-Star team in 2008 when he had his best season with the Texas Rangers.  But the reason Bradley continues to be a topic of conversation is because of the way he conducts himself.

Bradley has had minor altercations with the law, one of which even resulted in him spending three days in jail for speeding away from a police officer while at a traffic stop. 

But Bradley is vilified and reviled by some because of his behavior on the field.  While the list of incidents that involve Bradley behaving badly is longer than anyone wants to read, here is the abridged version of his past indiscretions;

-In 2004, Bradley was traded from the Indians to the Dodgers and had made it a few months without a blow up.  

But on June 3, he would be ejected from a game for arguing balls and strikes with the home plate umpire.  After calmly placing his batting gloves and helmet in the batter’s box, Bradley completely lost his mind and proceeded to get a bag of balls from the Dodgers dugout and throw it onto the field. 

He then threw one of the balls into the outfield and would have to be restrained by Dodgers manager Jim Tracy.

-In September 2004 while the Dodgers were visiting the Padres, a fan threw a plastic bottle in Bradley’s direction while he was playing right field.  Instead of just shrugging off the action as a fan behaving badly, Bradley picked up the bottle, left his position in the outfield and while yelling at the stands threw the bottle back into the crowd. 

After being ejected from the game, Bradley ripped off his shirt and cap while proceeding towards the Dodgers dugout, and urged the fans to continue to boo him.

-Also while playing with the Dodgers; Bradley had a very public spat with second baseman and team captain, Jeff Kent.  During which Bradley accused Kent of being a bad teammate “The problem is, he doesn’t know how to deal with African-American people,” Bradley would say of Kent. 

– In 2007, after Bradley had essentially forced a trade from the Oakland A’s by refusing to appear in the minor leagues (as a part of his rehab from an injury), he found himself on the San Diego Padres. 

During a September game, in what was one of the most bizarre sports injuries ever, Bradley began arguing with first base umpire Mike Winters.  At which point, while being restrained by manager Bud Black, he fell to the ground and began clutching his knee. 

It was later revealed that Bradley tore his ACL during the argument and to make the incident even more bizarre, it came to light that Mike Winters had actually started the entire confrontation by provoking Bradley with a string of obscenities.

– While enjoying the best season of his career with the Texas Rangers in 2008 (which would see Bradley bat .321 with 22 home runs and 77 RBI), Bradley took exception to comments that were made by Royals broadcaster Ryan Lefebvre during a game in Kansas City. 

Bradley had heard the comments in the Rangers clubhouse, which compared him to Josh Hamilton, who had struggled with alcohol and drug addictions for the last four seasons. 

Bradley was upset with the comments and left the Rangers clubhouse during the game looking to confront Lefebvre.  Before he could find the announcer, Bradley was re-routed back to the clubhouse by Rangers GM Jon Daniels and manager Ron Washington. 

After returning to the clubhouse, Bradley would not only begin screaming at teammates in the dugout, he also broke down in tears.  

-Coming off his aforementioned career season in 2008 with the Texas Rangers, Bradley signed a 3 year, $30 million deal with the Chicago Cubs.

Bradley’s time in Chicago would be mired in controversy, and he would only play there for a single season.  Not only was Bradley unproductive on the field (.257 batting average and only 12 home runs) he also clashed with Cubs manager Lou Piniella as well as the team’s GM Jim Hendry off the field. 

He was traded to the Seattle Mariners after the 2009 season, at which point Bradley sounded off as to why he didn’t play well in Chicago.  He blamed his poor play on the fans, and also accused them of being racist saying he didn’t feel safe in Chicago, citing the amount of hate mail he received while playing for the Cubs.       

There’s no doubt that people pick on Bradley because of his reputation and the way he reacts to certain situations.  At the same time, Bradley should realize that especially because he’s a professional athlete, people are going to try and provoke him to see how he will react.

Because of this, in pretty much every stop along the way Bradley has fought with everyone; fans, coaches, umpires, broadcasters, and even teammates.  But the biggest thing that Bradley has been fighting against is himself. 

Many of the incidents that have made Bradley an infamous figure in the court of public opinion involve him losing his temper and reacting in ways that few other players ever do.

In almost all of these instances, if he would exercise some self-control and take a deep breath he could have avoided another one of the patented blow-ups that Bradley detractors continue to point to as examples of why he doesn’t belong in Major League Baseball. 

Up until yesterday, it would seem that he hasn’t been able to admit to himself that he’s the one who has the problem. 

It’s no secret that Bradley had a few rocky stays with the various teams he has played for, which always seemed to end the same way.  The team gets fed up with Bradley’s antics and ships him off to another team willing to take a chance on him. 

On his way out the door, Bradley would point the finger at anyone he could to explain why it didn’t work out, but he would never say anything about his own involvement in the situation. 

But finally, on Wednesday, he stopped blaming others for his problems and took responsibility for the situation.  

Bradley reached out to the Seattle Mariners organization and admitted that he needs help dealing with the psychological and emotional issues that he has been living with throughout his life.

These issues have not been identified and they probably never will be, but if you look at Milton Bradley’s uncanny ability to continuously put himself in these positions you can’t say that he is a mentally stable individual.

It has certainly been a long time coming for Milton Bradley’s revelation that he needs help.  He has been known for his fiery temper and out-of-control antics for as long as he has played in the league. 

Along the way, many have tried to counsel Bradley and help him to shed his negative image and behavior.  But so far it hasn’t worked out very well, and maybe it’s because Bradley himself wasn’t ready to admit that he was the problem.

Perhaps the most intelligent thing I’ve heard about this entire situation is from Justice B. Hill, who covered Bradley when he played for Cleveland early in his career:

“Some people are so angry and carry such baggage with them that you have to let them go. They’re not worth saving,” Hill said. “Bradley is not worth saving until he saves himself. Because it’s always someone else’s fault. Someone always didn’t do right by Bradley.”

A lightning rod for controversy, Bradley is always outspoken, and never at a loss for words, which has turned him into one of the most controversial players in all of baseball. 

There’s no telling where this situation ends up, as Bradley has been given both the support of the Seattle Mariners as well as time away from baseball to try and fix whatever has gone wrong in his life. 

Hopefully, Bradley will be able to get the help he needs.

If something positive does come of this situation it would certainly be ironic that for once, something he said will help him avoid trouble rather than getting him in deeper than he already is.            

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For a man considered by many to be very talented, Milton Bradley has called eight cities “home” in 11 seasons in MLB.

I realize there have been other players who have become “shop worn” over the years. Kenny Lofton pops into my mind first. He played for 11 different squads in his very good 17-year career.

With Lofton 10 of those teams came in his final seven seasons after spending a decade with the Cleveland Indians.

Lofton was one point away from being a career .300 hitter. He showed skills and was not ejected from one town to another because of his personal demons.

Bradley, on the other hand has never measured up to the model many people had thought he had trying to burst out from the rough exterior.

In his career Bradley has only played one season in which he had enough ABs to qualify for any time of statistical reward, not that any would be due him.

In 2004 with the Los Angeles Dodgers he played 141 games and had 516 ABs. He batted only .267 with 19 HR and 67 RBI.

In four partial seasons he managed to bat over .300, his high-water mark being in 2008 when he batted .321 with the Texas Rangers.

His personality disorder(s) has made him the modern day Jimmy Piersall. Many readers are too young to remember him.

He was an outfielder with similar personal problems, mostly remembered as a member of the Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians.

There was also a movie made about him starring Anthony Perkins, called “Fear Strikes Out.”

Most people don’t remember that he had a decent career, just that he was “not right”.  Is that the legacy Bradley will be faced with?

He has already had enough strikes against him to be called out, and I mean out permanently. He is the MLB version of Terrell Owens, without being one of the best at his position.

The baggage he carries is too much for any Skycap guy to handle. I am not certain where or when his problems actually began, but the first I am privy to is the incident in Cleveland.

At the beginning of the ’04 season he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Franklin Gutierrez and Andrew Brown after a confrontation with manager Eric Wedge.

In 2007 he was placed on the Disabled List after he tore an ACL while being restrained by San Diego manager Bud Black.

Bradley was in an altercation with umpire Mike Winters.

Winters had told the home plate umpire that in a previous at-bat Bradley flung his bat toward him (Brian Runge). Winters was subsequently suspended after it was found that he had used profanity at Bradley (where would we be if every ump that cussed a player would be suspended?).

No further action was directed toward Bradley by the league.

In 2008 as a Texas Ranger, Bradley had a confrontation with Kansas City Royals’ announcer Ryan Lefebvre in the press box.

Bradley took umbrage at a comment the announcer made comparing Josh Hamilton and Bradley. A full-blown confrontation was dismantled and Bradley was reduced to tears in a public display of emotion.

With the Chicago Cubs in ’09 Bradley was again at the center of controversy. He was suspended for arguing a call with umpire Larry Vanover.

After Bradley flew out in a game against crosstown rival, the White Sox, he and manager Lou Piniella had a blow-up and Bradley was told by the manager to go home.

After that particular incident, Piniella reportedly said, “This has been a common occurrence and I’ve looked the other way a lot and I’m tired… I’m not into discipline, I’m really not. I’m going to put his name in the lineup tomorrow and that’s it.”

The Seattle Mariners acquired Bradley in an off-season deal that sent pitcher Carlos Silva and cash to the Cubs. The Mariners (as was I) were in high hopes that he could help them get to their first World Series this year.

In a game a few days ago he became irate after striking out twice in a game. Manager Don Wakamatsu removed him from the game prompting Bradley to say, “I’m packing my stuff. I’m out of here.”

Bradley sent a message to ESPN’s Colleen Dominguez, saying, “Any reports that I said I’m packing up and leaving are 100 percent fabricated.”

My point is this: How many strikes do you get? He has proved himself to be a polarizing (negative) component everywhere he has played.

The Mariners are waiting for Bradley to seek outside help and create a plan for self-improvement before any further action is taken.

It is clear to anyone with eyes that Bradley has some emotional disorder(s). Hopefully, he can get his personal life worked out.

I am told he is a pleasant man to talk to, but when stress levels hit the boiling point, he is someone else. Does Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ring a bell?

Every time I hear of one of Bradley’s outbursts I am reminded of the scene in “Fear Strikes Out” when Piersall (actually Perkins) begins climbing up the backstop.

What are your thoughts?

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