Media Responsibility

By Bob Romashko

I turned on the Score yesterday and caught a little bit of Boers and Bernstein. Matt Abbatacola was hosting with Dan Bernstein, and they were discussing the Cubs. The conversation started out, when I tuned in, talking about how the Cubs could use another good-hitting infielder right now, and Mark DeRosa (current line: .242/.313/.729) would solve a lot of problems for the Cubs. But then the conversation took a turn towards “Milton Bradley is a clubhouse cancer.”

Specifically, Abbatacola, who is a Cubs fan, was upset because the Cubs got rid of DeRosa to sign Bradley. He started out by saying “I want a guy here that cares all the time, and I just don’t believe that Milton Bradley is that guy.” And Bradley certainly has said he’ll take himself out of the lineup at times. We can have a discussion about whether that’s unwise, or whether that counts as dogging it, some other day.

But Bernstein, who is not a Cubs fan, and who Abbatacola conceded may have a more objective view of this, pressed him a little, and eventually Abbatacola admitted, I think, what his real problem is:

The guy is a clubhouse jerk and I think he’s just bad for the team. . . . I’m getting things from people that are around the team on a regular basis that just see the experiences of the relationships he’s developing or have developed in the organization. It’s not positive, it’s not good.

I’ll be honest, I don’t care that much whether Bradley’s teammates like him or not. I care a little, because I think that, all other things being equal, it’s better for a team to get along than to hate each other. And I care a little because I would prefer that other people were happy, even if I don’t know them. But I don’t think whether Bradley’s teammates like him or not really affects the Cubs.

But I have a problem with his statement by Abbatacola because it goes against everything I’ve heard. There are a couple of things on this site that suggest Bradley has a good relationship with the people around him. Carlos Zambrano thinks he’s a good guy. And Bradley and Jake Peavy seemed to get along. He and Ryan Theriot hug in the dugout, make bets and share bats. And Bobby Scales told ESPN 1000 yesterday that  Bradley is one of the best teammates he’s ever had (here, at about 51:00).

So I’d say the burden of proof was on Abbatacola. He went on a little, explaining why he thought Bradley was a bad presence in the Cubs clubhouse:

How do you think that comes across to a guy who’s busting his ass when he sees a guy who gets a big deal contract, wonders why the media wants to talk to him, when he’s done virtually nothing since coming here, and spent more time being injured than not, and is surprised when the media targets him as a person of interest.

I don’t know what it’s like in the Cubs clubhouse. I’ve never met anyone who plays for the team. So I’m not the right contributor here to comment on what goes on there. But what this sounds like to me is that Abbatacola is upset with Bradley for not being responsive to his friends in the media. That can’t help but color his position. The “people around the team” he’s been talking to, I imagine, are other reporters.

And what they’re telling him is that Milton Bradley is a jerk. Are they telling him this because his teammates or other people in the organization think so? I have my doubts. I think they’re telling him that because Bradley isn’t giving them quotes and they think that makes Bradley a problem in the clubhouse.

But of course, I don’t know, and what Abbatacola said was not at all helpful. He told us that Bradley has problems with people in the organization. You know what? If that’s true, tell us who. Tell us what happened. Did he run over Reed Johnson’s dog? Maybe he punched Angel Guzman in the face? Or maybe he shoved a clubhouse attendant? But if all you’re going to do with the platform of a major radio station is repeat vague rumors, you ought to know better than to tarnish someone else’s reputation.

Posted at 7:00 am
on May 20th, 2009
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