A Tale of Two Ballplayers

Barry Bonds is an amazing athlete. He does not have a reputation for blowing up and needing to be physically restrained. He does have the reputation for being a bit aloof, but he has not attacked anyone who alleges that he did what just about every ballplayer in the league has been doing (and keep in mind that steroids are going to have more benefit to pitchers than to hitters anyway). The media dumps on him every chance they get. The commissioner acts the complete ass when Bonds breaks a record. The Giants, a team that has been utterly dull the last few years, with the exception of Bonds, fires him. Fires him. The same year he broke the all-time home run record.

Now we have Milton Bradley. Milton Bradley has a deserved reputation for blowing up at the slightest provocation. He was caught being a jerk to an ump and made a big deal of it with the ump who reported him. The ump may or may not have said something unprofessional. Milton Bradley has a tantrum and attacks the umpire and, in being subdued, injures himself. He claims that if his self-inflicted injuries make him miss the season, he is going to "take action" against the umpire. MLB suspends the umpire. AOL, in its reporting, has a survey asking if the league "did enough". Not whether or not it should have done anything. Not whether or not it should have taken action against Bradley.

I don't get it.