Mike Winters Suspended

[KCGHOST]

For all those that immediately jumped on Milton Bradley as a hooligan after his recent run in with umpire Mike Winters might want to consider dropping the holier-than-thou attitude in light of Winters just announced suspension. The suspension runs for the remainder of the season.

That Bradley has issues is unquestioned, but his behavior the last couple years has shown that he is trying to get a grip on them. Winter deliberately went out of his way to provoke a person of known instability. The events that followed will probably end Bradley's career.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070926&content_id=2231227&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

[Erik Bedard]

Thank goodness. A guy who would do that has no business umpiring.

I haven't heard anything about it ending Bradley's career, just his season.

[RubeBaker]

The forecast is six months to recover. Not neccessarily career ending though.

If the ump did bait him, he should be out of the league. That kind of thing is just idiotic from somebody who's supposed to be an authority figure.

[Erik Bedard]

Yeah, I'm hearing 6-9 months. But not career ending, though you never know with knee ligament things.

[rockin500]

Yeah, I'm hearing 6-9 months. But not career ending, though you never know with knee ligament things.
you generally arent fully healed from that for a year. so he basically wont be around next year either. He's not at the age where you want to miss a whole year due to a severe knee injury.

[Big_Mac]

this is pathetic. the umpires are suppose to be the professional figures out there, if i was in control, he'd have no business umping baseball games any longer.

[DonnieBaseball]

So he got suspended for a month? Pathetic.

[Spazz]

I find it interesting that MLB made this announcement. Usually these things are taken care of behind closed doors.

[digglahhh]

I find it interesting that MLB made this announcement. Usually these things are taken care of behind closed doors.

Me too.

I'm kind of happy about it though.

There's been much focus on the increased animation of players, but umps seem less reserved today too. They are certainly more willing to engage players than in the recent past. As far as blown calls and such, that's entirely the business of the league to review - and performance evaluations should remain private. But, umps should be held publicly accountable for their misuse of authority.

[Brian McKenna]

An umpire cussed. Oh my, what is the world coming to? I know those men in blue have never heard such words from others. He must be a bully. He should be shot.

Get real - watch People's Court - words are no provocation for someone to need to be physically restrained. Bradley's responsible for his own actions. The consequences are his.

[BoofBonser26]

An umpire cussed. Oh my, what is the world coming to? I know those men in blue have never heard such words from others. He must be a bully. He should be shot.

Get real - watch People's Court - words are no provocation for someone to need to be physically restrained. Bradley's responsible for his own actions. The consequences are his.
It all goes back to the little kid's argument - "but he started it!"

[PeteF3]

An umpire cussed. Oh my, what is the world coming to? I know those men in blue have never heard such words from others. He must be a bully. He should be shot.

Get real - watch People's Court - words are no provocation for someone to need to be physically restrained. Bradley's responsible for his own actions. The consequences are his.

Umpires are not supposed to be referring to players as [blank pieces of feces] under any circumstances. And there's no "But He's a Jerk" clause that says you can do it to a guy like Bradley.

And if he in fact was lying to the home plate umpire about Bradley throwing a bat at him, that's a major issue that needs to be addressed.

No, Bradley is not blameless in any regard. But Winters needlessly escalated a situation and deserves to have the hammer brought down on him for it.

[Pine Tar]

Umpires are not supposed to be referring to players as [blank piece of feces] under any circumstances. And there's no "But He's a Jerk" clause that says you can do it to a guy like Bradley.

And if he in fact was lying to the home plate umpire about Bradley throwing a bat at him, that's a major issue that needs to be addressed.

No, Bradley is not blameless in any regard. But Winters needlessly escalated a situation and deserves to have the hammer brought down on him for it.

I guess I don't see what Bradley is being blamed for. Is he somewhat blameable since he got angry, and acted angry? How many players this year alone have been restrained by other players and/or coaches? 100? 200? I refuse to assign one once of blame to Bradley in this situation. This was the result of a bad ump. The only thing that you could blame Bradley for was getting injured. His outburst resulted in him getting injured, but was not related at all to causing or exascerbating the situation. This situation was as bad as it was going to get when Winters said what he said.

[PVNICK]

Umpires are not supposed to be referring to players as [blank piece of feces] under any circumstances.

That was the obscene language? I was expecting something else.

[Stray Cat]

Bradley got a hit to first base, he should have been focused on getting to second not calling time out to confront an umpire.
It's probably the best thing to happen to the Padres if they go to the World Series. :gt

[PeteF3]

That was the obscene language? I was expecting something else.

Like what, the n-word?

If he'd said that, I'd have been *cheering* for Bradley (and Meacham) to deck him. As it was, a suspension was well-deserved, but it should have been longer.

[PVNICK]

Yeah, that's exactly the line of comment I figured the ump used. I sthis whole umps can't keep their mouths shut a current trend or was it there back in the past but just has been forgotten about?

[Brian McKenna]

Winters' suspension seems way out of line considering the meager 1-2 game suspensions that are routinely handed out to other field personnel for way more outrageous behavior.

Baseball allows too much arguing and bickering. It's an embarassment to the game and the fans. Grown men routinely act like asses in the name of competition, especially the much older managers. It's not accepted in other workplaces, why sports?

Again, a little verbal exchange is no reason for Bradley to try and tee off on Winters.

Think what you want but as I get older and see the societal responsibilities and actions that are expected from regular people, I have no sympathy for the millionaire prima donna b.s. that athletes get away with. And in turn, show children that it's okay to escalate situations even to the point of the assaults that are common in sports.

[KHenry14]

Let's not forget that it was Meacham who first reacted to Winters, not Bradley, so you have a guy who's not known as a hothead reacting like he did tells us something. I gotta think that Winters went way past the line for Bobby to react the way he did.