NEWSLETTER
Milton Bradley had his appeal of the two-game ump-bump suspension heard yesterday.
Bradley said no decision was announced during the nearly two-hour hearing, but he expected to hear something in the next two days. He started Wednesday night’s game at Houston, batting third in the order. cubs.com.
At best, one game will be shaved off the suspension.
The hearing was done by conference call with Bradley and a Cubs representative at Minute Maid Park. Also participating were Vanover and a representative from the umpires’ organization, plus officials from Major League Baseball. The tape of the incident was replayed.
“I watched the whole video for the first time [Wednesday],” Bradley said. “You can see when I walked around the catcher, there was no cursing on my part, not threats. [Vanover] took off his mask and walked toward me. You can actually see me stepping back. You’d need a forensic expert [to see a bump].
“I’m a 220-pound guy. If I bump into you, there’s going to be a reaction. I wasn’t happy about being tossed. It was my first at-bat at Wrigley. It was not what I wanted.
“In that situation, bases loaded, I wouldn’t walk away not swinging the bat. I think anybody watching it would say [the pitch] was not a strike.
“You’re going to get kicked out of the game every now and then anyway, and you’re going to be upset. Anybody is. This suspension and the steps that are being taken are pretty over the top.”
Look, I get that you (a) feel like the suspension was unwarranted, and (b) don’t want to continue to foster this kind of reputation.
But, dude, it was a two game suspension, handed out when you were sitting out games three at a time. Sometimes you’ve just got to say, screw my pride, I’m doing what’s best for the team, and ensuring that I don’t have to miss any more games than I have to.
Short of Bradley having the entire suspension erased, I will always bang this drum: it was a selfish, prideful, stupid thing to do.
