Notebook: Umpire suspended for rest of season
Umpire Mike Winters was suspended by Major League Baseball for the remainder of the regular season on Wednesday because of his confrontation with San Diego’s Milton Bradley last weekend.
The Padres claimed Winters baited Bradley, who has a history of losing his temper. Bradley tore a knee ligament when his manager spun him to the ground while trying to keep him from going after the umpire during Sunday’s 7-3 loss to Colorado in San Diego. Bradley will have surgery today in Cincinnati.
Winters was suspended because the commissioner’s office concluded he had used a profanity aimed at Bradley, a baseball official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the reason for the suspension was not announced.
Bonds bids adieu to SF
After missing 10 games because of a sprained big right toe that is worse than initially thought, Barry Bonds was in the starting lineup and batting in his regular cleanup spot for the San Francisco Giants in their home finale against the San Diego Padres. But he isn’t scheduled to play this weekend in Los Angeles.
Bonds went 0 for 3 and committed an error before leaving the game at the start of the seventh inning.
It was the end of an era for the 43-year-old home run king, seven-time N.L. MVP and 14-time All-Star – in the city where he used to bounce around the clubhouse as his late father, Bobby, and godfather, Hall of Famer Willie Mays, got ready for games.
“The ball Barry Bonds hit for his record-breaking 756th home run will be branded with an asterisk and sent to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Fashion designer Marc Ecko, who bought the ball in an online auction, set up a Web site for fans to vote on the ball’s fate, and announced the decision to brand it won out over the other options – sending it to Cooperstown unblemished or launching it into space.
Clearing the bases
Texas Rangers’ Michael Young reached 200 hits for the fifth consecutive season. … Pittsburgh second baseman Freddy Sanchez will sit out the final five games of the season because of a shoulder injury that will require arthroscopic surgery Friday.