Major League Baseball

Bradley returns to Chicago

Published Apr. 24, 2010 2:31 a.m. ET

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After a tumultuous season with the Chicago Cubs, Milton Bradley returned to the city that he would rather forget about.

Bradley was back in Chicago as the Seattle Mariners opened a three-game series with the Chicago White Sox on Friday. Although he was out of the lineup with a sore calf, Bradley met with the Chicago media for the first time since his 2009 season ended when the Cubs suspended Bradley after a verbal altercation with their hitting coach, and after he criticized the atmosphere of the organization.

Bradley told a Chicago TV station that he felt misrepresented by the media.

``As a black man playing this game, I just don't feel like...you know, the majority of the media is middle-aged white guys, so I don't think you can accurately construe what I have to say, or portray me as who I am, because you don't know,'' Bradley told Chicago Comcast Sportsnet.

``You don't know where I come from, nobody has ever asked those questions. They just see what they see.''

Bradley called himself a ``nerd'' and said he plays scrabble with Mariners reliever Shawn Kelly in the bullpen.

``This is stuff people don't know. I'm as non-violent, non-threatening as they come,'' he said.

If and when Bradley plays during the three-games series, he doesn't care what kind of reception he gets from the Chicago fans.

``I don't have to do anything but be myself. That's the main thing,'' Bradley said during the pregame session with the media. ``Everywhere else people want you to be somebody else. I'm going to be me. Nothing you can ever say or do is going to change what I do.''

Bradley deflected all questions about Chicago and praised Seattle despite his early struggles.

``This is about baseball. That's what we're trying to do. It's not about everything else. Everywhere else is about everything else, the story. In Seattle they care about winning baseball,'' said Bradley.

Bradley is hitting .167 with two home runs 10 RBIs in 14 games, but feels more comfortable in his new home because of the lack of media exposure.

``Because I've never had 10 people in my face with a camera in Seattle,'' Bradley said.

Bradley is in the second year of the $30 million, three-year contract the Cubs gave him following his breakout 2008 season with Texas. In his only season with Chicago, Bradley hit just .257 with 12 home runs and 40 RBIs in 124 games.

In Bradley's most recent visit to U.S. Cellular Field last June Bradley He got into a nasty exchange with Cubs manager Lou Piniella, who sent him home during the game.

``Everyone makes it easy out here,'' Bradley said of playing in Seattle. Every day, guys are great, whether you are up or down. That's something I haven't had my whole career. That is something I can't say I've had in any other place,'' said Bradley.

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