Milton Bradley Accuses Jeff Kent of Racism

[DesertFox]

SFGate.com
24 Aug 05

Milton Bradley and Jeff Kent are still at odds. Los Angeles Dodgers manager Jim Tracy and general manager Paul DePodesta wish they weren't — especially now that Bradley has injected race into the equation. ...

"The problem is, he doesn't know how to deal with African-American people," Bradley said. "I think that's what's causing everything. It's a pattern of things that have been said — things said off the cuff that I don't interpret as funny. It may be funny to him, but it's not funny to Milton Bradley. But I don't take offense to that because we all joke about race in here. Race is an issue with everything we do in here.

"Me being an African-American is the most important thing to me — more important than baseball," said the 27-year-old center fielder, whose voice never went beyond his normal speaking level. "White people never want to see race — with anything. But there's race involved in baseball. That's why there's less than 9 percent African-American representation in the game. I'm one of the few African-Americans that starts here." ...

Kent, a former NL MVP who feuded with Barry Bonds in San Francisco, defended himself following Bradley's accusations.

"He can go ahead and say those types of things, and it comes from an incident that he still doesn't get. And that's a shame," Kent said. "If you think that I've got a problem with African-Americans, then go talk to Dusty Baker. Go talk to Dave Winfield, who took me under his wing. Go talk to Joe Carter — all the guys that I idolized in this game and all the veteran players who taught me how to play this game.

"That's a shame, and I take offense to that. That's just absolutely pathetic if it comes from his mouth. I will not get into this anymore, and that's all I've got to say."

More (http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/08/24/sports/s005853D93.DTL)

[Beowulf]

Jeff Kent does seem to have a problem getting along with people. Is he a racist? We will probably never know the truth.

[DesertFox]

The only two black players (that I know of) with whom Kent has had run-ins are Bond and Bradley -- both notorious for prickly sensitivities and seeing racism everywhere. To be sure, I suspect Kent himself has prickly sensitivities; but I think this is a clash of prick personalities.

On the NY Yankees team of the late Seventies, Thurman Munson and Reggie Jackson had words frequently. Munson wasn't known for saying much to anybody, but Jackson's flamboyance -- especially in styling himself "the straw that stirs the drink" -- pissed ole Thurman off. Jackson, though, never attributed it to racism; he had enough sense and self-assurance to recognize that people might not like him for his often-rotten personality rather than his race.

[Melz]

Well Marge Schott was called a racist too, and they took her team away because of it. Well, because of random remarks outside of the public to someone who was with her. She didn't run her team in a racist manor, yet it was taken from her. I don't believe that this comment applied though:

"Race is an issue with everything we do in here."
Seriously? In everything they do? Who the heck hasn't moved past making race an issue in every day life? They can't just work together and not make race an issue? How backwards sounding.

[Beowulf]

Marge Schott WAS a racist! I don't remember the exact comment or the exact player (it might have been Bill Matlock) but she more than once considered him and some other African American players as her little black servants or something. I hated the woman so I chose to forget the whole thing and her.

[DesertFox]

She referred to Barry Larkin as "one of my million-dollar n-----s." Broad was brain dead. I, as I imagine everyone here, vehemently disapprove of and dislike Schott, but that whole thing should never have been reported. All it did was stir up resentment that has persisted to this day. We'll hear about it to the end of time, even after no one even remembers that word anymore.

People everywhere, all the time, every single day, behave one way among those they are most comfortable with; and a whole 'nother way before the world. You can bet Barry Larkin and the brothers, when it's just they, speak unflatteringly about the white guys, or the latin guys, or the French, or whomever. This sort of thing happens, prolly most especially in the fiercely competitive world of sports where large, sensitive egos regularly get bruised and need the salve of bullshit conversation.

Very rich, very spoiled owners are no different. They want to feel powerful and superior. They can't do it on the field so they do it with their mouths, in precisely such bullshit conversations.

Such bullshit conversations need to go unreported.

[Beowulf]

Thank you, DF, for getting the player's name straight that I was thinking of.

(Boy did I miss!)

[Melz]

"She referred to Barry Larkin as "one of my million-dollar n-----s."

Yikes, she said THAT??? She's not very liked around here, that's for sure. They tried to take her car dealership away from her too but failed at that. What a moron though!

[TSawyer2112]

Sounds to me like Bradley is the one that has a problem with race.
"Me being an African-American is the most important thing to me — more important than baseball," said the 27-year-old center fielder, whose voice never went beyond his normal speaking level. "White people never want to see race — with anything.

Don't you just love how some players refer to themselves in the third person
"I think that's what's causing everything. It's a pattern of things that have been said — things said off the cuff that I don't interpret as funny. It may be funny to him, but it's not funny to Milton Bradley."

[The_RANDy_Corporation]

It's not racism. It's two locker room malcontents who both need to be gotten rid of if LA ever wants to find harmony again.