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Milton Bradley is dealing with some rough issues these days. Apparently the poor guy feels as though he just has to accept his “bad guy” imagine in baseball.
From ESPN.com:
“If I was a musician, I’d be Kanye West. If I was in the NBA, I’d be Ron Artest,” the 31-year-old former Expo, Indian, Dodger, Athletic, Padre, Ranger and Cub said this week. “In baseball, they’ve got Milton Bradley. I’m that guy. You need people like me, so you can point your finger and go, ‘There goes the bad guy.”
Here’s that “bad guy,” ejected twice in three Mariners spring games last week. The first ejection remains a joke to Bradley. He disagreed with another called third strike, then umpire Dan Bellino thought Bradley gave a demonstration immediately afterward at the plate.
Bradley thought it was the third out, and said he was one move into taking off his batting glove to prepare to play the field.
“Never dropped my glove. I pulled one strap off my glove, like this,” Bradley said, pulling off the velcro strap on his batting glove. “But if you read the paper, it will say I removed my gloves. It’s exaggerated, because that’s what the media does, you know? I pulled one strap.
I don’t think I would be exaggerating if I wrote that Bradley played like crap in Chicago last year. In fact, if I were Lou Piniella I would have rather had a trash bin out in right field last year instead of Bradley. At least the trash bin can’t forget how many outs there are in an inning.
I agree with Cubs’ GM Jim Hendry when he said that Bradley should take a look in the mirror and stop blaming everyone else for his problems. Perception is reality and no matter how much Bradley thinks the media is out to get him, its not. The media wants a story and Bradley provides one with his behavior. If he stopped acting like an overgrown child then the media would stop treating him like one.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
ESPN The Magazine has been running an interesting feature where an unnamed professional athlete writes candidly about his sport. It started with the NFL and now they’re featuring an unnamed NBA player. Here is what he had to say about NBA groupies (Insider subscription required):
Not that long ago, The Mag’s NFL Player X (whoever he is) estimated that 30 percent of married NFL players cheat on their wives. I was surprised to hear it was that low. In the NBA, I think it’s closer to 60 percent.
Trades have been arranged because one woman is involved with two guys on the same team. That’s what happened in Dallas some years ago. And right now I know of one girl who is dating two NBA players. One makes her car payments, and the other pays her rent. They don’t know about each other, but they do share a money manager who’s writing both checks. It’s bound to blow up at some point.
As for the married guys, it’s not that hard for a groupie to get with one of them, either. They’re like regular dudes in corporate America who travel a lot, except they have more money and more opportunities to cheat. They don’t get caught because they keep it on the road, calling their wives all the time to check in.
In fact, I would guess that 50 percent of NBA wives actually started out as groupies. And a lot of those women are realistic about the scene their spouses are in. They take a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach. They will say something like, “Don’t embarrass me by getting caught.” It’s not that they like the situation, but they understand the circumstances. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that they were in those same clubs looking to get with a professional athlete, no matter how many tries it took.
The player goes on to wonder why players get married at all, and uses Derek Jeter as example of a player who can pretty much do whatever he wants because he’s single. It’s surprising that more players don’t go that route, though I’d guess that it can be tough to extricate yourself from a relationship that started before you hit the big time.
Bill Simmons is calling this the hockey fight of the year. To me, this is one of those scenes that makes the sport so strange…
I know most hockey fans enjoy this, but I’d rather see these guys use that pent up anger and energy and make a play that actually impacts the game. A situation where two guys grab the other by the jersey and throw 50 right hooks doesn’t seem like it should take place in a professional sport, save for boxing or MMA.
Orlando head coach Stan Van Gundy told the Orlando Sentinel that if he were to fall out of the NBA coaching ranks, he’d rather coach at a small college than at the major D1 level:
“As far as what it’s all about at the Division 1 level and what it’s all about here, it’s all the same thing. It’s all about winning and losing, putting people in the seats and money,” the Magic coach told the Sentinel after Wednesday’s shootaround.
“I mean, those people throw out that they are really into academics and all that … There may be four or five schools that’s true of.
“I don’t know of coaches getting fired winning 20-25 games a year and kids aren’t graduating. I don’t know people who are keeping their jobs that aren’t winning and are graduating. It’s about the same stuff.
“Here, [in the NBA], it’s just more honest. We all know what it’s all about. You don’t have to pay lip service to things. This is the best basketball in the world.”
He makes a good point, and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wants to do something about it.
Duncan suggests that schools that cannot graduate at least 40 percent of their student-athletes be banned from postseason play. If the rule was applied to this year’s tournament, 12 of the 65 teams would be locked out of the tournament. Three of them are No. 6 seeds or better—the University of Tennessee, the University of Maryland, and the University of Kentucky. “If you can’t manage to graduate two out of five players, how serious are the institutions and the colleges about the players’ academic success?” Duncan asks. “How are they preparing student-athletes for life?”
The data is from 1999-2003, and it seems a little unfair to focus on players that played seven to 11 years ago. Also, programs that send a lot of players to the NBA shouldn’t be penalized because their players are good enough to make millions playing professional ball. If this rule were implemented, it should focus only on players that stayed in college for four years.
For years, The Bootleg has studied graduation rates for football, basketball and baseball. The data is more recent, from 2004-2007. I’m not at all surprised to see my former coach, Bo Ryan, and the Wisconsin program near the top of the Big Ten (78%). He tends to recruit smart players who will likely stay in school for four years. Duke is second in the ACC at 92%, while North Carolina is at 75%. Maryland brings up the rear at a measly 8%. That’s just pathetic.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
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