Milton Bradley: Foot Meet Mouth
(Hat tip to MLBTR for the link)
This article will do Milton Bradley no favors with the fans or the press that is already trying to poke him with a stick like 10-year olds at a zoo trying to wake up a sleeping lion.
"My agent was saying that Jon Daniels was telling him, 'There are days when he doesn’t want to play because of his health,’ " Bradley said.
"Well, you can get a healthy guy to go out there and play 162 games, but he won’t do what I did in 120."
A bit self-serving as the article notes, but rather perceptive as well for a major league player. But unfortunately he goes on...
"If I’m being paid, and I’ve got the commitment to me that I give to them, you make more of an effort to be out there every day," he said.
"When you’re on one-year deals constantly, you’ve got to put up as good numbers as you can. When you have days where you’re not feeling like you can contribute, you’re not going to go out there, because you’re not going to want your numbers to suck.
"So, if you’re in a situation like I am now, if they want me to go out there when I’m feeling a little banged up, I’ve got no problem doing that because they’ve made the commitment to me."
I imagine there are a lot of baseball players that feel that way and Milton sure isn't worried about what people think of him. But that just isn't going to go over well in a new city and a new fanbase that he's trying to win over. We as fans tend to romanticize the game of baseball and ignore that it's a business and job for the players, but on the other hand, Milton should have probably left that unsaid. And you know the Chicago press will be all over him for that one. The article also mentions...
.... Bradley was prone to sporadically calling in sick, including missing 10 of 11 games in early August as the Rangers lapsed from wild-card contenders to pretenders.
Plus, at the same time when Bradley was randomly removing himself from lineups, Michael Young was playing nearly every day despite having broken fingers on both hands.
Young never complained about Milton. That’s not Michael’s style. But his teammates certainly noticed.
No good shall come of this...
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