Follow LA Observed on Twitter here
Ex-Dodger hothead Milton Bradley has calmed down (except for a little brush with a reporter), gotten over the injury bug and put together a heckuva season for the Texas Rangers. His stat line would lead the Dodgers in home runs and, if you don't count Rafael Furcal's inflated low-at-bat stats, in average, on-base and slugging. He blogs at the New York Times about being selected to the American League All-Star team:
At about 10:45 a.m. on Sunday, I was in the clubhouse in Baltimore in the middle of a domino game with Eddie Guardado, Gary Pettis, and Eric Hurley. Ron Washington was standing over my shoulder talking trash like he always does and had everybody laughing hysterically when he asked me to come see him in his office for a minute.I dropped everything and headed to his office wondering: “What have I done now?”
He gave me the news and a congratulatory hug, with a smile, but told me to keep the news quiet until it was officially announced....
Besides the birth of my son, I don’t think I’ve had a prouder moment in my life....As a 16-year-old sophomore at Long Beach Polytechnic High School in California, I could only dream there would be days like that one.
Bradley's brief time in Los Angeles included a scrape with the LAT's Jason Reid, that notorious meltdown on the field in 2004, three home visits by the Redondo Beach police, and finally a trade to Oakland for Andre Ethier.
Related: Phil Wallace looks at the Dodgers improbable rise to first place, despite a losing record. SoCal Sports Observed
Weird!: Fox edited out the lone Atlanta hit from the replay of the Dodgers' win the other night. Tom Hoffarth of the Daily News says, huh?