Bradley's real problem has always been Bradley

I've spent a healthy portion of my life at Wrigley Field, first as a fan and then as a vendor, and the last 20 years as a beat writer and columnist.

And it's funny the things you remember.

Before Bobby Murcer in 1979, I had never heard a player booed that loud and that often at Wrigley Field, and the words yelled at him from the right-field bleachers were downright cruel.

It wasn't, however, just that Murcer was bad. It was that Murcer had been traded to the Cubs from the Giants on the eve of spring training 1977 for Bill Madlock, because the Wrigleys didn't want to pay Madlock.

Fans were furious that the Cubs sent away a young player with a career .337 average for a guy clearly on the downside.

So they booed Murcer every time he made a mistake.

Murcer was white. Madlock is black.

Dave Kingman was so hard to like that you have to believe he wanted people to hate him.

Between the things he said and the things he did, by the time his three years were up in Chicago, fans couldn't boo him enough or kick him out the door fast enough.

The Cubs sent him to the Mets for Steve Henderson, who got a standing ovation in his first at-bat on Opening Day 1981 in Chicago.

Why? He wasn't Dave Kingman.

Kingman is white. Henderson is black.

Kingman played for eight teams in 16 years because he was pure misery to be around, which brings us to Milton Bradley, who is now on his eighth team in 11 years because - all together now - he's pure misery to be around.

GM Jim Hendry handed Bradley $30 million to simply drive in a run a few times a week. If he had done that, fans would have loved him.

Instead, he was bad. And on top of being bad, he blamed his manager, his teammates, the ballpark, the city and - eventually - the fans for his problems.

The fact is racism exists in this world and unfortunately it always will.

So I don't doubt Bradley heard some racist remarks and I believe him when he says he got racist mail, because some Cubs fans are racist, just as are some White Sox fans, opera fans and pink flamingo fans.

At the Blackhawks game Wednesday night, Niklas Hjalmarsson hammered the Kings' Wayne Simmonds with a clean hit, causing Simmonds to take a stupid retaliation penalty shortly thereafter.

From a seat near the press box, a fan yelled, "Go sit down. Don't you know you're supposed to be in the NBA anyway?''

Simmonds is black.

Now, I have no idea if the guy who yelled it is really a racist, but that sounds like a racist remark to me.

The guy was playing to the stereotype that you must be white to play in the NHL, and black to play in the NBA.

The guy sounded drunk and was probably trying to impress his friends with something he thought was funny, and my guess is he's more imbecile than racist.

Either way, does this make all Hawks fans racist? Of course not.

Most Hawks fans are great fans, equally capable of loving or hating any player of any background depending entirely on the honesty of effort provided.

Same with Cubs fans, who over the years have proven they can dislike any manager or player of any color and any origin if he plays or acts like a fool.

They disliked Bradley because he was stupid and bad on the field, and stupid and bad off the field.

It is a pathetic attempt by Bradley to shed blame that he has tried to paint everyone who lives in Chicago or attends Cubs games as racist.

Cubs fans are without a doubt the most forgiving fans in the world, many would say to a fault.

There is no other park in the majors where a starting pitcher routinely gets a standing ovation for a pregame walk to the bullpen, or an outfielder gets generous applause for discovering the cutoff man.

For him to be loved here, all Milton Bradley ever had to do was show up, and on the bad days admit he was bad.

That's all.

Instead, he attacked the fans and blamed Chicago for his woes.

He couldn't take any responsibility, and so he got what he wanted, a chance to go elsewhere, something he has asked for in every city he's ever played.

And with no mirrors to be found, the clock is already ticking on Milton Bradley in Seattle.

brozner@dailyherald.com