Quote:
|
Originally Posted by RichMSN
I found it funny that all the talking heads (mainly on ESPN Radio) this morning were taking Bradley's side. As if the umpire should just thank his lucky stars he's on the field and should repeat to himself over and over "I'm not the show, I'm not the show."
The announcer world and the rest of the world is so anti-official it shouldn't surprise me. But Bradley *is* a major league a-hole and everyone knows that. So it surprised me when everyone started blaming the calm, collected umpire (only one person in that altercation didn't lose his cool and it wasn't Bradley).
|
As apparently the only person who is reading this forum that was at the game and saw EVERYTHING that happened, I'm going to jump in again.
First, as a fan, someone who works in high school and JC athletics and someone who has both officiated and (gulp) coached both high school and midle school basketball, I respect the job officials do and baseball umpires in particular. However, as a fan of the game, I have never ever thought, "Wow, I get to watch 4 outstanding umpires tonight." So in a sense, I agree with the sentiment that umpires should not be the show.
Second, I don't find it that difficult to believe that someone who has practiced their craft for probably close to, if not over 30 years, perfecting it at its highest level, could maintain a perceived level of "calm" and "collected-ness," while at the same time getting some shots in. I'm not automatically agreeing with the assertion that Winters said anything racist, but he definitely added fuel.
Third, why not just get rid of Bradley on the spot in 5th if Winters thought it to be so out of line? If Winters would have tossed him (as I thought he was going to), no Padres fan or announcer would have thought anything other than Milton was stupid.
Finally, as this scenario played out, the Padres radio announcer on at the time (Ted Leitner and Andy Masur) were absolutely MURDERING Bradley. I agree 100% with Jerry Coleman and San Diego Steve, that if Coleman says it was the worst, it was the worst.
PS: Jerry Coleman is not even in the conversation for biggest homer or worst announcer. It starts with anyone working for the White Sox and ends with Ron Santo and has a lot of midwest and east coast trash in between