This guy is just unreal. He just reeks of a character who doesn’t fully appreciate his job nor understand all the work that goes into being good, if not great at what you do. Now I’m not saying I’m the most punctual being in the world, but I know if I were playing baseball for a living I’d be at the ballpark in plenty of time to properly prepare for a game. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for Mr. Milledge. Why was he benched on Thursday night? He was late to the game. Manny Acta wasn’t having any of that nonsense, saying it’s one of his rules that cannot be broken. But of course being late for a game is nothing new for Milledge.
If you remember back in ’06, Willie Randolph got in Milledge’s ear about his lack of hustle on the bases. Milledge responded to the lesson by showing up to the park late the next day. What a guy. And my favorite was a personal experience a few years ago — I went out to the park for a Dodgers/Mets game to get some pre-game interviews. Luckily I had the pleasure of speaking with Carlos Beltran and David Wright. After those two dudes, I was really eager to speak with the new young phenom on the club. I had trouble locating him in the clubhouse, then I checked the field. He was nowhere to be found. Who was this masked man, you ask? None other than Lastings Milledge, who decided to turn down my interview request because he was already late for warmups. Dude was on the late bus to the game and showed up in the clubhouse at least an hour after me, and I wasn’t even playing. He was in jeans while everyone else on the team was already in uniform. Who we facing tonight? Brandon Webb? Aww, yeah, I got this, no prob. I’ll see you guys at the park at 6, maybe 6:30. No problem.
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Larry Brown has over nine years of professional sports media experience, working in online, radio, and TV capacities. He recently was a nationally syndicated sports radio host. Follow him on twitter @LBSports |
