More from Miltie

More from my favorite player Milton Bradley.  Now it’s the NL’s umpires who are out to get him because of his dispute with umpire Larry Vanover on April 16.

Says Miltie,” [The umpires think] ‘We’re going to get him any time we can. As soon as he gets two strikes, we’re going to call whatever and see what he does. Let’s try to ruin Milton Bradley.’ It’s just unfortunate. But I’m going to come out on top. I always do.”

Here’s an article from SI.com.

Umpires have been known to punish players who challenge their calls too vociferously.  However, mlb’s umpires are professionals, and I suspect that the majority of them legitimately try t0 get the call right every time no matter whose hitting or pitching.  They are well paid for what they do, and I suspect that more than a few of them take great personal pride in their ability to remain neutral regardless of the circumstances.

Bradley, as I’ve said before, is a man with a persecution complex and no ability to acknowledge (apparently, even to himself) his own role in the controversies that are constantly surrounding him.  Perhaps Bradley does this in part because it helps give him additional motivation to succeed.  It is now a constant theme in professional sports that players seem to believe that everyone is disrespecting them and saying they can’t win.  Even though the facts often make these statements seem palpably ridiculous, I think that players want to believe it, because it gives them additional motivation to provide their phantom critics wrong.

In any event, Miltie’s constant broo-ha-ha’s are a distraction for any team he plays on.  In my opinion, he’s just not worth the headache.