It was is easily the strangest injury of the season San Diego Padres OF Milton Bradley is out for the remainder of the season including the playoffs after tearing the ACL in his right knee. The injury occured while Padres manager Bud Black was trying to restrain Bradley from arguing with umpire Mike Winters and spun Bradley to the ground.

After a called third strike in the fifth inning Bradley flipped his bat and had to be asked to leave the batter’s box. Winters told home plate umpire Brian Runge that the bat was only 5-10 feet away from him. During his next at-bat in the eighth Runge asked Bradley if he flung his bat at him, and after Bradley singled to center he began questioning Winters about the bat flipping. According to Padres first base coach Bobby Meacham Winters began swearing at Bradley and that is when the argument spun out of control.

Black tried to keep Bradley at bay by grabbing his jersey, but Bradley kept fighting and eventually he and Black spun to the ground. Bradley immediately grabbed his knee and had to be carried off the field.

In a post game tirade with the media Bradley said, “he would take some action,” in hopes of getting Winters reprimanded. He also brought up NBA referee Joey Crawford who was suspended by the league for his actions against San Antonio Spurs center Tim Duncan.

Unfortunately for Bradley he has a much different reputation around baseball than Duncan in the NBA. He has been considered been many to be an arrogant player who  is prone to blow-ups like the one that happened yesterday. He has played for five teams in seven seasons, and while he has the potential to be a great major leaguer his ego seems to get in his way.

That’s not to say that what happened to Bradley yesterday was all his fault. Some fault must lie with Mike Winters. He knew what buttons to push with Bradley and obviously pushed them. Winters wasn’t wishing a season ending injury for Bradley, but he was baiting him into an argument. Watching the tape you see first base coach Meacham first head towards Winters, not Bradley. Winters said something and should receive some sort of suspension. How about the rest of the season and no postseason for Winters?

To add insult to injury the Padres lost their third straight to the Colorado Rockies and have a shaky 1/2 game lead over the Philadelphia Phillies for the wild card with the Rockies only 1 1/2 games back. Also, in the seventh inning Bradley stepped on the hand of CF Mike Cameron who left the game with a bruised hand.

The Padres will have to try and make a run at the playoffs without two of their better players, and with the rise of the Rockies and Phillies I think the Padres chances are becoming slimmer.

Other News:
- Minor leaguer Jose Offerman has pleaded not guilty to charges he attacked a pitcher with a bat during a game on August 14th.
- MLB set a record for total attendance with one week to go. 76,215,082 fans have gone to the ballpark this season. An average of 32,710 fans per game which is also on pace to break the record of  31,632 set in the strike-shortened 1994 season.