Cubs Win and Bradley is Suddenly Very Chatty
The Cubs and Nationals battled to a 2-2 tie through 6 innings, before Milton Bradley drove in his third run of the night on a fielder's choice to score Koyie Hill in the bottom of the 7th. Bradley had homered earlier in the game for the Cubs first two runs. The Cubs piled on in the 8th with five runs and ended up winning easily 9-4. 38 games left to bear unless we luck out with some rainouts.
Following up yesterday's comments, Bradley claims he has no regrets signing with the Cubs, but says he dreads extra inning home games:
"...so I can be out there the least amount of time as possible and go home."
Not quite as poetic as "I'd play this game for free", now is it?
He goes on to talk about facing hatred on a a daily basis including at restaurants, but sarcastically doesn't believe it has anything to do with race.
"America doesn't believe in racism."
That one made me chuckle.
Then he pulls a little Stuart Smalley on us.
``I feel love for me, because I love me,'' he said. ``I look in the mirror and go out there and play and feel love for my teammates and love for the coaching staff and for myself.''
That one made me laugh out loud.
The original link from the Daily Herald above has the more measured and objective article on Bradley's recent comments. The Sun-Times seems to have made it a mission to drive Bradley out of town if they can, with articles from Wittenmyer and one from Chris DeLuca saying that Milton Bradley will be the symbol of failure of the 2009 Cubs. Yes, Milton Bradley is what went wrong with the Cubs this year, not Alfonso Soriano's laughable 85 OPS+, not a disabled list longer than the Dead Sea Scrolls, not Lou's slow descent into Alzheimer's, it's Milton Bradley struggling in the first half and having the audacity to speak his mind on occasion. He's got to be the first free agent in the history of baseball to start slow, right? But I understand, after all he is the highest, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th highest paid player on the team, he certainly deserves the brunt of the criticism.
Bradley has not had a good season, certainly not what the Cubs expected and some of his "act" even grates on my generally patient nerves, but he is far from the Cubs most glaring problem in 2009 . He's not even in the top 5 (Soriano, the DL, the Bullpen, Hendry/Lou, Soto and Fontenot would be a good start). Bradley definitely makes himself the story sometimes and that's the part that grates on my nerves, but it's hardly enough to warrant the smear campaign that the Sun-Times is hellbent on pursuing, but I guess you have to try something when you're in a dying industry.
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