[THEOSU]

a few things are obvious from the clips i saw on sportscenter.

in the 5th, bradley strikes out and is not happy at the call. no footage is shown of the supposed bat flip, but he is peeling off his batting gloves with bat under arm.

in the 8th as bradley comes to bat, the homeplate umpire engages in conversation with bradley, apparently including information that 1st base up winters saw bradley flip his bat at home plate ump runge. bradley singles.

at 1st base, bradley and winters engage in a rather animated discussion. after a short period of time, bradley takes his lead as the pitcher looks in for the sign. it is clear from the clip that winters continues talking while bradley is taking his lead and the pitcher is looking in - while the ball is live. obviously he goes too far with a comment as bradley calls time and 1st base coach meacham immediately approaches winters. hilarity ensues.

now, it seems clear that winters is massively culpable. it also is clear that winters has directly affected MLB's playoff product, as either a weakened san diego team makes it or a (theoretically) lesser rockies or phillies team will make it.

it is also clear that the umpiring crew as a unit is culpable. they met in the half inning after the rockies came to bat, where apparently winters told runge of bradley's flip. it is worth noting that bruce froemming, general [censored], is the crew chief of this crew - someone bradley has had a confrontation with before.

now, if bradley did flip his bat at the umpire and winters saw it, should he not have ejected bradley there?

when bradley took his lead and the ball was live, winters had no reason at all to be talking, yet he was. and being quite profane.

now, i'm sympathetic to bradley here. as a cleveland fan, i experienced quite a lot with him. he is a hothead, he is emotional, he has trouble controlling his temper. but one thing he never has shown the propensity to be is a liar. i believe him, meacham and black a lot more than i do winters and froemming (whose quote was something like 'bradley is a hothead and winters told him to calm down, which bradley refused to do.')

if bradley's story turns otu to be true, which i'm sure it will, in any sort of normal workplace this is a terminable offense.

of course, with the umpires union, who knows.

the froemming crew is scheduled to work the padres last series of the season, a four game set with milwaukee.