Michael Ventre

There were the Dodgers, in the midst of a perfectly miserable and depressing season, and Milton Bradley had to ruin it.

Until recently, the Dodgers were conceivably on their way to one of the most mind-boggling back-ins in the history of sports. A truck driver aiming the rear end of an 18-wheeler through a mine field toward a loading dock the size of a window sill wouldn’t be as impressive as the Dodgers gaining the National League West title.

Right now they’re a malodorous 57-68, yet tied for second place with the Arizona Diamondbacks, and only five games in arrears of the putrid Padres. If all three teams play down to their potential, it’ll be a dogfight to the end — involving an allergic Maltese, a nervous Pekinese and a sickly Bichon Frise.

But for the Dodgers to accomplish this unlikely feat, a certain amount of camaraderie must be present. It’s possible to win — or, in this case, lose and ultimately wind up on top – with no hitting, inconsistent pitching, a shaky closer and a penny-pinching front office unwilling to add a dime to Frank McCourt’s debt. If you mix in clubhouse strife, then you might as well kiss your dreams of failing upward goodbye.

This week a brouhaha erupted between Bradley and Jeff Kent, and the race card was thrown down face up. Neither player is a candidate to be the next Pope. Bradley is a Molotov cocktail with legs, although until this latest dustup he’s been as publicly serene as a yoga teacher. As for Kent, there used to be a TV show called “Make Me Laugh,” in which comedians tried their best to get contestants to crack up. Let’s just say Kent would have lasted as champion on that show as long as Ken Jennings did on “Jeopardy.”

So the surprise wasn’t that the volatile Bradley and the prickly Kent had a tiff, it’s that it took until late August.

That, and the racial angle.

Of course, racism exists. It’s everywhere, although usually well hidden. It seeps out in subtle ways. It remains a scourge of our society.

But Bradley, an African-American, abrogated his responsibilities as a clubhouse leader by raising the issue during the heat of a lackluster season. He should never have gone there, because it’s one of those bells that can’t be unrung. Now it will be a festering sore on the franchise, not just this season, but for as long as Bradley and Kent are together. And because, relatively speaking, the two don’t make all that much money, the Dodgers had hoped to squeeze contributions out of both of them for years to come.

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This all started Saturday in Florida when Kent accused Bradley of not running hard enough around the bases. After the game, Bradley had a 20-minute private meeting with manager Jim Tracy, which Bradley requested. He then tearfully spoke with reporters afterward, saying he wanted to be known as a "good person" more than a "pretty good baseball player."

Since then, Bradley has suggested that the two have had problems since spring training, and that Kent occasionally has directed comments at him that refer to his race.

Said Bradley on Tuesday: “There is a pattern to the things that have been said. He doesn’t know how to deal with African-American people. We all joke about race in here. But there are things said off the cuff that I don’t interpret as being funny. They are funny to him and Jeff Foxworthy (a white comedian known for his redneck jokes), but not to Milton Bradley.”

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