POSTED 9-25-07

There are rotisserie heroes and fantasy goats. But some performances are so ugly, egregious or plain perplexing that it begs the refrain: What the F--k! Here is Update's seriously twisted moment this week.

Man, does it suck to be Milton Bradley right now. First his team hit the skids while locked in a tight NL West playoff race, then he tore his ACL after being dragged to the floor by his manager, struggling to strangle the first base umpire. Hard times indeed. It seemed as if Bradley, well known for his various altercations, was simply in the midst of a late-season breakdown — the kind that comes when you realize your team is free-falling and your playoff hopes are quickly fading. For Padres fans, it must have been excruciating to watch. The moment he did an about-face and charged umpire Mike Winters, they had to know their already tenuous hold on the Wild Card was going down the toilet. Bud Black deserves NL manager of the year simply for holding back the ill-tempered outfielder. What would possess Bradley to erupt like he did, knowing full well that a suspension would hamper the Padres playoff aspirations? Bradley said after the game that Winters directed several profanity laden words his way. Unnecessarily juvenile if true, but definitely not enough to warrant a full-on umpiric assault. Maybe Winters was treating Bradley unfairly and maybe he did toss a few vulgar words in his direction, but in baseball especially — the paradigm of American culture — players should hold themselves to a higher standard. Good luck to the San Diego Padres as they try to complete their unlikely turn-around from last season. It's just too bad they'll be doing it one player short.