Can I get a Barry? No? Can I get a Frank? No? A Chris who? Shelton? FIRE MY ASS: The 2008 Rangers

Washington: gone by the all-star break, yes?

Does look like it, doesn't it.

Aren't the Rangers leading the league in sac bunts? Is RW angling for a job w/ the 1989 Pirates?

"Manage the situation before it manages you"

The Texas Rangers have cut ties with Sidney Ponson for what GM Jon Daniels called "disrespectful and adverse reactions to situations unbecoming of teammates." He has officially been designated for assignment. The club has 10 days to trade or release him.

Three errors on three days' rest will do this to you.

MILTON! .337/.449/.627!

RANGERS! .500!

Rays needed to get a win after the boston sweep, thank you kameron loe!

there is unsubstantiated talk that sir fat sidney has also been stripped of his title by the dutch crown.

You pour in the goop
In the helmet thing
But you better watch out
When you pull the string
Big Red

Critical comments cause Bradley to go looking for Royals announcer

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3438827

From the article:

"We weren't singling out Milton Bradley," Lefebvre said.

Lefebre, from the telecast:

(Hamilton) would be a pretty good role model for Milton Bradley, who clearly has NO control over himself, because it's the same thing year after year. This game -- this country, really -- if you follow baseball, has really embraced Josh Hamilton and I think they've wanted to do the same with Milton Bradley, but Milton Bradley has refused to allow himself to be put in that position.

You'd think I'd get "Lefebvre" correct since I must have at least one of his mediocre dad's cards.

seeing Pedro pitch vs them Sat nite at Shea, will be interested to see if they can rake in new wind currents of Lame-Duck Shea...

Def. not singling out Milton at all.

No racist undertones either.

Seeing them vs. Atlanta on Wed.. Finally, a team I like even less than the Rangers.

Recovering drug addicts should be role models for black people everywhere.

That said Bradley does himself no favors by doing whatever the hell he was planning to do by running up the stairs towards the broadcast booth. Anger management seriously hasn't done much for this dude.

The inspirational-ness of Hamilton's story is really starting to annoy me. It's an amazing story not because he's a recovering addict, but because dude hadn't played pro-ball for what a couple of years. That's very impressive and it sure beats shooting heroin and/or passing out in a pool of vomit, but it's not inspirational or anything. He's just very talented. Lesson of the Josh Hamilton story: if you are going to be a recovering drug addict it always pays to be very skilled at your chosen vocation. LEARN FROM THAT MILTON BRADLEY!

Remember the good old days, when you could call a man a fucking piece of shit and he would respond with "Yes, sir" instead of losing control?

Dude if Milton Bradley can't deal with random abuse he picked the wrong profession. Seriously, Lefebvre basically sez Milton has "NO control" over himself and what does Milton do but prove he has NO control over himself. Really proving the dude wrong.

Unless there is more to it than what was posted above (which is stupid and racist but doesn't exactly rise to the level of "calling a man a fucking piece of shit" in my book) I'm not seeing this as being much different than what most pundits have said about dude for the last five years. Has Milt gone after Bill Plaschke (cuz that would be doing the world a favor, frankly)?

That said Bradley does himself no favors by doing whatever the hell he was planning to do by running up the stairs towards the broadcast booth. Anger management seriously hasn't done much for this dude.

Maybe he would have gotten in his face and yelled at him. I don't think that would have been uncalled for, given the situation. Bradley's having a monster season as well -- even more monstrous than the one Hamilton is having, going by slash stats -- and Lefebvre talked a bunch of shit about him within the context of praising Hamilton (for overcoming something completely different).

"Fucking piece of shit" = what several witnesses claimed to have come from the mouth of umpire Mike Winters, directed at Bradley, last year

"Maybe he would have gotten in his face and yelled at him. I don't think that would have been uncalled for, given the situation."

I think that's pretty much uncalled for, but we'll have to agree to differ here. Let your team defend you in the press the next day, but having confrontations (even if they are just vocal) with the other team's announcer does your reputation as a lunatic hothead no favors.

Yeah that confrontation worked out real well for Bradley too.

Good news:
First to 400 runs scored (401)

Bad news:
First to 400 runs allowed (416)

Bradley out after injuring quadriceps Tuesday

Opportunity after opportunity and he just throws them all away.

http://assets.espn.go.com/photo/2008/0624/mlb_i_ryan2_300.jpg

Wouldn't be able to ID this man otherwise.

Shelton DFA'd :(

2 games over .500 for first time this season.

(pretend this is in caps)

dear ron washington:

why the fuck are you trying to steal 3rd w/ no outs in a tie game on the road w/ the heart of your lineup coming up against mariano rivera? are you fucking so in love w/ your smallball bullshit that you're willing to piss away a go-ahead opportunity, or do you have so little faith in your top-heavy lineup that you're willing to try running into outs?

the fact that you scored on a single up the middle means shit. stick your "aggressive" hustle bullshit up mike scoscia's jock.

yours truly,
someone that desperately wants to hear sweet sadness in michael kay's voice

via Steven Goldman's Pinstriped Blog:

Quote of the week: Milton Bradley after manager Ron Washington informed him of his selection to the All-Star team, and then embraced him: "For 30 years, I always imagined what a father-son moment would be like. That was it. That meant a lot coming from Wash."

that would be a lot more poignant if he didn't have a son of his own.

lol parenting skillz!

Uh...

http://images.lostpedia.com/images/1/1c/Keamy.jpg

Keep the ball DOWN?

Milton Bradley was given the bunt signal with TWO outs and a runner on FIRST down FOUR in the bottom of the EIGHTH.

That baseclogger just walked.

Hopefully Murphy won't kill off this rally with a HR.

BOY WHAT A JERK

Q: You've been running baseball academies in the L.A. area for several years — are you as motivated now as you ever were to do so?

MB: It was a lot easier to do stuff with it when I was playing in L.A. In the off-season I still try to get out and do as much as I can. This off-season, I was pretty much rehabbing my knee the whole time so I didn't have a whole bunch of time to do it. It's always fun, though, and I always feel an obligation to help the youth who come from the same area as I come from.

Q: Are the academies doing what you want them to?

MB: Definitely. I've got some pictures of some of the kids with me. Maybe down the road we can do something like that in Texas. I'm still getting acclimated to Texas and used to everything.

Q: Let's say you made A LOT of money. Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Carl Icahn kind of dough. Billions. What would you do with it?

MB: Make sure the inner-city youth has something constructive they could be doing instead of getting out there getting into trouble and getting involved in gangs and drugs and all that stuff. ... I'd just invest and do something positive. I'm not about owning a bunch of fancy stuff. I've got enough to support my family, so I'm fine.

(I had been led to believe that Bradley spends his off-seasons playing long toss with infant heads and squandering various opportunities to, you know, turn his life around.)

Only 5 games back in the WC! I think!

interesting old SABR article about the ur-Bradley/TO/Bonds/'bad boy black athlete,' Dick Allen

Dick Allen gets a bad rap. He's really not much like Bradley (whose not much like TO or Bonds.)

Hamilton got the Bonds treatment last night. Up 4 with the bases loaded and 2 outs, Tampa elects to IBB J-Ham to get to Marlon Byrd. Byrd grounded out to end it.