MLB Players Association May Take Up Milton Bradley’s Cause
The Major League Baseball players’ union may file a grievance on Milton Bradley’s behalf after the outfielder was (finally) suspended by the Chicago Cubs for the rest of the season for his absurdly unacceptable comments made over the weekend.
However, the Cubs have yet to issue a formal notice of the suspension to either Bradley, his agents or the union. Once that notice has been received, Weiner said the union would confer with Bradley and his agents, Seth and Sam Levinson, before deciding whether to proceed with the grievance.
Bradley hasn’t yet been informed whether the suspension is with or without pay. He also hasn’t been told what the specific basis for the suspension was.
Once those matters have been clarified, he might be able to challenge the suspension in several potential areas. One might be that the Cubs didn’t have “just cause” to suspend him. A second could be a disagreement about the facts of the case. A third might be simply that the punishment was too severe, given those facts. ESPN.
Look, I get that union exists to look out for its members. But assuming Bradley was suspended with pay (and I’m sure he was), the union really needs to stay out of this one. You’ve got a guy who was clearly harming his team – notice that no one on the Cubs is even remotely jumping to Bradley’s defense? – and you want to fight for this guy?
Psst. Union. You’re made up of *other players,* too. You know, like the rest of the Cubs, who were happy to see Bradley get suspended. So unless he’s losing out cash, it would be a terrible idea to fight for Bradley at the expense of a larger chunk of the membership. If you want to cut off your nose to spite your face, fine. But don’t expect the nose to pay for it with its union dues.
Also, the new head of the players association is named Michael Weiner. So there’s that.
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No way he’s being suspended without pay. And if it’s with pay, then the union should indeed stay out of it. The guy is getting a paid vacation (possibly for the next 2 years as well). I, too, get their initial reaction to protect a player. My experience, however, has been that to the extent that unions try to protect malcontents whom nobody else thinks should have a job, they alienate the rest of the membership. Not good for business.
Obviously I agree, Lance… but you better be careful with that kind of talk…