Temper comes back to haunt Bradley

A bizarre chain of events during the Rockies-Padres series Sunday left San Diego barely hanging on to their lead in the wild card race and, more importantly, without starting outfielders Milton Bradley and Mike Cameron.

Bradley was the center of attention during Sunday's third straight loss to Colorado in which a confrontation between him and first base umpire, Mike Winters, caused him to tear his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). Bradley is now out for the season, and the Padres are most likely going to miss the playoffs.

The news is completely unexpected and almost surreal.

The most peculiar thing is how Bradley tore his ACL. Manager Bud Black, trying his hardest to restrain Bradley from rushing the ump, pulled, pushed and finally yanked him hard enough to where Bradley's knee simply buckled.

It looks painful watching the replays, yet it's kind of humorous. Bradley received a serious injury caused by wrestling with his own manager [HTML_REMOVED] definitely the first incident where someone busted an ACL while arguing with an umpire.

Perhaps the humor lies in what exactly happened between Winters and Bradley that caused him to lash out in such rage.

Bradley's bad day started with a fifth inning strikeout, following which Bradley refused to leave the batter's box before finally flipping his bat. Three innings later, after Bradley singled, he and Winters began debating the bat flip, and during that time, Winters said something that immediately set Bradley off into a rampaging fury.

In an ESPN interview with Bradley, he claimed Winters called him a "piece of shit," and according to an ESPN article, first base coach Bobby Meacham and Black said Winters used profanity.

But it seemed Bradley was more upset with the umpire confrontation than his season-ending injury.

"This is the most unprofessional, most ridiculous thing I have ever seen," Bradley told ESPN.com. "It's terrible. And now, because of him, my knee's hurt. If this costs me my season because of that, he needs to be reprimanded. I'm taking some action. I'm not going to stand pat and accept this because I didn't do nothing wrong."

What kind of action did he and the Padres take?

The Padres pushed for a thorough investigation of Mike Winters' behavior. The commissioner's office also looked into whether Bradley was baited by Winters.

Sure enough, good news for Bradley was announced yesterday. According to ESPN, the commissioner's office concluded that Winters used profanity directed at Bradley and would now be suspended for the remainder of the regular season.

The Padres were right the whole time. Winters definitely said something to set Bradley off. However, Bradley should not have reacted as he did. He was wrong in trying to confront Winters and now is out when his team needs him the most.

It's not the first time Bradley has had incidents with his anger. Think about how many teams have gotten rid of Bradley because of his anger issues. It is also interesting to see that most of these incidents have had a similar theme. Someone says something that is provoking and Bradley is unable to control his temper.

First, the Cleveland Indians traded him to the Los Angeles Dodgers because of a run-in with manager Eric Wedge. Then, while he was with the Dodgers, he clashed with teammate Jeff Kent and said Kent had an inability to deal with black players. Also during that time, police responded three times to Bradley's home on domestic violence calls, but he was never arrested or charged.

This season, the Athletics traded him to San Diego, where his volatile behavior continued.

Call it karma [HTML_REMOVED] call it unfortunate.

"I think we have seen several incidents now, over the last couple of weeks, of umpires provoking players," said ESPN writer Jayson Stark on ESPN.com. "And I think that is absolutely wrong this time of year. I think umpires need to do a better job of taking into account the emotions that are in play this time of year. They need to take into account that when they make a controversial call it affects seasons, teams, players, races and it affects lives."

He couldn't have said it any better. It is obvious San Diego is not in good shape with a week left to go in the season. After getting swept by the Rockies at home and losing their fourth straight game to San Francisco Monday, their National League West title hopes have dwindled.

Instead, they are only a game up in the wild card over Philadelphia and Colorado. Anything can happen.

But let's not get too caught up in this Bradley-Winters incident. Bradley got what he wanted. Winters was reprimanded, and is also out for the regular season, just like Bradley [HTML_REMOVED] kind of comical.

However, the focus is now on the Padres. Can they win without their best hitter? It won't be easy, but they are ultimately the ones controlling their own destiny.

[Reach reporter Erica Metzler at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.]