Watching a pro take on national sports story

Sure, there may be sports reporters who lie in wait for the juicy scoop or feed off the bottom of players' psyches in search of a catchy headline.

Bruce Miles, though, is most certainly not one of them.

That's one reason the Milton Bradley soap opera last weekend has so loud a ring of authority. People familiar with Bradley probably weren't surprised by the audacity of his comments in the Daily Herald last Sunday, but more-occasional sports readers might well have wondered whether Bradley was a victim of an insensitive reporter more interested in a Page 1 byline than in what's really happening with the Cubs. In this case, you can be sure that what happened with Bradley was all Bradley.

Miles is the Daily Herald's Cubs beat writer, a job he's described as his "dream job" since he took it over more than a decade ago. If you've heard him talking about the Cubs on the radio or seen him interviewed on television, you may have recognized the calm sincerity with which he approaches the assignment. Those who work with him could easily imagine his guileless directness as, finding himself with the opportunity to chat one-on-one with the tarnished superstar, he asked natural questions any serious fan might. How you holding up? Did you enjoy your first season in Chicago? Will you be back in '10?

Bradley's answers, everybody now knows, would be blunt and intemperate. No, he didn't enjoy this summer, because "it's just not a positive environment." He complained of the "negativity" that has dogged him all season and grumbled that "you understand why they haven't won in 100 years here."

Miles dutifully recorded Bradley's comments and built them into a separate story that he turned in along with two other reports he wrote about the Cubs' Saturday loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. He didn't try to sensationalize them. He didn't have to. Considering Bradley's rocky record with the Cubs and their fans this season, editors quickly recognized Miles' extraordinary scoop and his sports story was moved to the front page of the news section.

Cubs GM Jim Hendry read Bradley's remarks and, given everything else that has happened with the unpredictable and unproductive slugger this year, decided he'd had enough. He sent Bradley home for the rest of the season.

Miles would go back on Sunday to chronicling the Cubs' exciting late-innings win over the Cardinals and collecting the reactions of Bradley's teammates to the suspension. He would approach both tasks with his usual calm professionalism, even as the story was exploding all around him throughout the day.

By the end of the day Monday, he would turn in three new Cubs stories - a report on the 10-2 victory over Milwaukee, a reaction from Cubs Manager Lou Piniella to Bradley's departure and a delightful sidebar about a Triple-A unknown who at first unknowingly ignored the call that would bring him up to the Major Leagues. It was all in a day's work for a journeyman reporter who knows how to shine the spotlight without getting caught up in it.

Watching sports writers scream at each other on an afternoon or evening cable talk show, you might sometimes wonder whether you've stumbled across some bizarre spinoff of the Jerry Springer Show. But sometimes it's fun just to watch how quietly, and effectively, a real pro works.

Jim Slusher, jslusher@dailyherald.com, is an assistant managing editor at the Daily Herald.