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Wednesday, August 24, 2005
Tension hits breaking point
The Bradley-Kent feud could ruin any shot the Dodgers have to win the West.
By STEVE BISHEFF
The Orange County Register
LOS ANGELES – The powder keg was placed in the middle of the Dodgers clubhouse the day they announced Jeff Kent and his sandpaper personality had signed with the same team that employed Mr. Anger Management, Milton Bradley.
It was never a matter of if an explosion between two of baseball's most volatile players would occur.
Only a matter of when.
Unfortunately for beleaguered Manager Jim Tracy, it has come at a time when the Dodgers already were hanging on the edge of contention by a thin, blue thread.
That thread might have snapped a couple of hours before Tuesday night's game at Dodger Stadium when the Kent-Bradley rift that had surfaced in Florida on Saturday morphed into an ugly controversy thick with racial overtones.
"The problem," Bradley said, just for starters, "is that he (Kent) doesn't know how to deal with African-American people."
"He can go ahead and say those type of things," Kent countered. "It comes from an incident he still doesn't get, and that's a shame.
"If you think I do (have issues with race)," Kent said, "go ask Dusty Baker or Joe Carter. I take issue with that."
Funny, but Kent didn't say anything about checking with Barry Bonds.
Bradley wound up a late scratch from Tuesday's lineup because of what was described as "irritation of the left patella tendon."
But clearly, the center fielder's irritation went much deeper than that.
Bradley said there wasn't any one thing Kent said that offended him. Instead, he explained there were a pattern of comments.
"There are things he said off the cuff that I don't interpret as funny," he said. "I think it may be funny to him and maybe Jeff Foxworthy, but it's not funny to Milton Bradley."
None of this is funny to Tracy, either. Somehow, the manager has to try to negotiate a truce between two parties who seem as far apart as some factions in the Middle East.
"We've begun the process already," Tracy said. "When the two sit down (together), we want it to be in a normal tone of voice where we can discuss it in a manner where we hope something good comes out of it."
Good luck with that.
Brad and Jen are closer than these two at the moment.
As far as anyone knows, the already less-than-warm feelings between the two players were exacerbated Saturday when the second baseman, reportedly upset with Bradley's baserunning, called out the center fielder in front of his teammates.
Tracy acknowledged Tuesday he heard voices rising and "furniture moving around" after that game, and he was concerned enough to race into the clubhouse.
Kent thought he was just being a veteran doing what is expected of him. Bradley thought it was demeaning.
"At no time am I going to let somebody question my hustle, question my injury or question my motivation for playing," Bradley said Tuesday.
He went on to describe Kent as something other than a role model.
If you want to be a leader, he said, "You can't have your locker in the corner of every clubhouse we go to on the road. You can't put your headphones on and sit in the corner reading motocross magazines.
"I follow his footsteps and the things that he does on the field. As far as off the field, he has no clue about leadership."
Unfortunately for Bradley, the one man he acknowledges as his leader seems to have taken Kent's side in some of this. Tracy, whom Bradley has described as "my Pops," was asked if he thought race was involved in this dispute.
"My response to that, knowing Jeff Kent personally from having managed him almost a full season," Tracy said, "is that I don't think Jeff Kent is particular at all if he has something to say to somebody."
Was he hinting that Bradley saw something that wasn't there?
"Absolutely, that's what I'm saying," Tracy said. "He (Kent) is a vicious, vicious competitor."
The manager went on to say these are two guys "who are vicious competitors."
At one point Tuesday, Bradley complained he went to slap hands or fists, or whatever they slap now, with Kent in Florida, and the second baseman pulled his hand away.
"No, it never happened," said Kent. "I never pulled my hand away."
Does that sound like a major issue on a franchise that always has been proud of its history dealing with interracial matters?
These are the Dodgers, remember, the team that signed Jackie Robinson to break the color line in the 1940s. The organization that had Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe and Robinson in its lineup before some clubs had even one black player signed to a minor-league contract.
The Dodgers are supposed to lead the way when it comes to racial groundbreaking. Not find themselves up to their waistbands in ugly racial innuendoes.
"I'm not the first manager who has had to deal with skirmishes," said Tracy, trying his best to play down the problem.
OK, but this isn't something you can just shrug off, either. Two of the team's prominent players have made it clear they can't stand each other. And now one of them has thrown in the race card.
Be assured of one thing: At least one of them won't be here on opening day, 2006.
The question remains, however, what do you with both for the final 37 games of a season already overflowing with turmoil?
"Do you think this thing between you two can get settled?" Bradley was asked in front of his third or fourth media cluster Tuesday.
"I think it's already been settled," he said.
You hear that, and you suspect solving the problem might not be the first priority.
At least in Bradley's case, recognizing the problem might be.
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