Marty Lurie Talks San Francisco Giants Baseball
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What Got Tossed First, Milton or His Bat by Rick Kaplan


OAKLAND (September 23) – ESPN re-wrote the script on Milton Bradley’s ejection before MB even got to the showers last night after being tossed by home plate umpire Ron “Mea” Kulpa, in the eleventh inning of a game eventually won by Oakland in twelve, 5-4.

And apparently Josh Suchon, the ordinarily level-headed and highly capable Athletics’ beat writer for the Oakland Tribune, was watching a different game than I was, or not watching at all, if he really agreed with “The Leader in World-Wide Sports Coverage” that Kulpa only threw out Bradley after MB threw his bat.

This morning I wrote the following to Suchon:

Check below for the letter and more! Dear Josh –

This letter is in response to your description of MB’s “meltdown” and “showing his . . . . worst” in the events surrounding his ejection in the eleventh inning last night vs. the Angels.

My view, after watching the game and numerous replays on TV, was that Milton Bradley, who was leaving the home plate area following his argument with Ron Kulpa, only threw his bat AFTER being tossed out of the game.

Please have a look at the tape–from all angles–and then let me know what you think, upon further observation.

I have asked a few other media people for their opinion and would like to get a sense of the facts before I go any further with this. I have always found you to be a very fair-minded journalist and an excellent baseball writer. I will eagerly await your opinion of what happened.

I have already written to ESPN to question their version of the facts, which also alleged that Bradley threw his bat first. Their instantaneous scolding of him had an especially objectionable, racist, and patronizing quality.

Milton Bradley is not a choir boy. Nor are any of us. On the other hand, Bradley appears to be a sensational teammate, one who is selfless in the field and who is constantly cheering on his comrades, despite his own ups and downs on the diamond.

But until the trigger-happy Ron Kulpa appeared to go after MB (in the words of A’s broadcasters Glenn Kuiper and Ray Fosse), as the muttering Bradley was leaving the plate, all this was just a traditional baseball spat in a taut September extra inning game.

But ESPN was ready to pounce.

And instead of a good old baseball brouhaha, it became another disgraceful episode of distorting who an African-American is. When there is an incident or confrontation such as Friday night’s, it is too often reflexively attributed to a highly stereotypical “bad temper,” especially after the media gets their hands on it and rearranges the facts.

The coverage of these incidents is very important not only to Milton Bradley and the A’s. After all, this is still a society built on double standards, one which rolls out ready-made story lines and stereotypes when it comes to explaining players not from the dominant culture.

Despite their considerable skills and often dazzling accomplishments purely as baseball players, some of today’s stars seem to be as likely to be identified with certain social stereotypes and media-contrived personas as much as they are with their actual exploits on the field.

And the type-casting often seems to fracture along, and perpetuate, deeply embedded racial and social boundaries and mythology.

For example, A.J. Pierzynski is just an annoying rascal. Jason Giambi is a once-misguided, now restored “leader.” Mark McGwire is, sadly, a tragic fallen star.

But ARod is an arrogant, calculating brat, Barry Bonds is a “cheater,” and Milton Bradley is a menacing, murky figure in our ongoing sports soap opera.

Yet, Roger Clemens, America’s hero, can deliberately throw a bat at Mike Piazza (after beaning him their previous encounter), show no contrition, and be constantly referred to as a “great competitor,” while Delmon Young, a 21 year old kid, despite apologizing, is nearly driven out of baseball after apparently throwing his bat at the umpire.

Roberto Alomar guaranteed his place in the Hall of Infamy in 1996 when he spit on umpire John Hirschbeck. But did Hirschbeck first address Alomar in a sexually demeaning and highly provocative manner? According to veteran umpire Jim Evans, he “may have.”

These “sports” incidents are consistently used to promote and reinforce social stereotypes.

How much does the sports media have to do with creating and maintaining these powerful messages?

SCUTARO THE GENE TENACE OF 2006?

Darn it, Marco. You ruined my story line for the post-season last night when you routinely won another game in extra innings, practically single handedly eliminating the Angels with that DP on Sean Figgins in the eleventh and your near-400 ft. single in the twelfth. Before last nights heroics, you were cast as my Al Weis, my Enos Slaughter of 2006, in a fantasy piece about how you made everyone forget about Giambi and Arod, and Big Hurt too, after you hit .392 and knocked in eleven runs as the A’s swept the Mets in the upcoming Series.

Now, nobody would be surprised !!

Hmnn, what about Antonio Perez?

COLISEUM RETRO

The trend in modern ball parks is swinging toward open air–Minnesota, are you kidding?–larger dimensions (pitcher friendly), retro features such as abandoned old breweries and slaughterhouses incorporated into the building, and water views.

So, turn the Coliseum ballfield around so we face the Bay (Let the hitters look into the afternoon sun instead of the fielders). Then Mt. Davis, formerly the only centerfield bleachers in the history of the game that was higher than the grandstand behind home plate, gives the old ballyard a more traditional symmetry. And if the Raiders left, the Battlestar Gallactica-like centerfield superstructure could then take on the artificially quaint cache of the old factories and pointless faux-crumbling structures in other parks.

As dumb as this plan sounds, it couldn’t possibly be more stupid than moving to Fremont.

0 comments

1 Anonymous { 09.24.06 at 12:26 pm }

Good stuff, Rick. Aside from a few astute and socially conscious people like you, the media is absolutely horrible. Sensationalism and negativity permeate the establishment and like you said the media’s views largely reproduce the dominant discourse. No wonder Bush is getting away with war crimes.
-Mike

2 Anonymous { 09.27.06 at 8:29 pm }

I couldn’t agree more, both about how Bradley is demonized and how Oakland is demonized as a site for the team.

I couldn’t be happier if the Raiders left and the Coliseum was fixed up for baseball!

3 Anonymous { 09.28.06 at 7:14 pm }

The official rules on the playing field (1.04) state that “It is desirable that the line from home base through the pitchers plate to second base shall run East-Northeast.” I presume that is so the pitchers don’t have a big advantage over the batters by being able to hide the ball in the sun. So much for getting a ball park in Oakland to have a view of the bay.
Still it would be nice to send the Raiders somewhere else.

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