Umpire Winters suspended for season after Bradley altercation

Mike Winters, the umpire involved in the heated clash with Milton Bradley in San Diego on Sunday, has been suspended without pay by Major League Baseball for the rest of the regular season.

The decision was made following an investigation during which Bradley, Winters, San Diego first-base coach Bobby Meacham and Colorado first baseman Todd Helton were interviewed.

The key moment in the decision, according to multiple sources, came as a result of Winters calling Bradley a "f------ piece of s---" during the heated argument at first base.

That moment is what appears to have escalated what already was a heated argument into a situation that spun so badly out of control that Bradley suffered a season-ending knee injury while being restrained by Padres manager Bud Black.

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.

"It's something that's handled internally by MLB. They handle the umpires, the Padres don't," San Diego manager Bud Black said in San Francisco before his team played the Giants.

"In this case, I think it's best for my position to just stay away from it," he said by phone from San Francisco, where the Padres were to finish a series against the Giants on Wednesday night.

San Diego first-base coach Bobby Meacham and Mike Winters argue during the Sunday incident. (AP)

"There's a code of conduct, and what you're not supposed to do is engage these guys," one source with knowledge of the investigation said. "Umpires are supposed to call balls and strikes, safe and out and keep the flow of the game going. When tempers get high, they're supposed to help bring them back down, not make the situation worse."

The argument occurred in the seventh inning of Sunday's game and was an extension of an earlier disagreement in which Bradley was called out on strikes. Bradley called it "the most unprofessional and most ridiculous thing I've ever seen."

"It's terrible. And now, because of him, my knee's hurt," he said after the game. "If this costs me my season because of that, he needs to be reprimanded. I'm taking some action. I'm not going to stand pat and accept this because I didn't do nothing wrong."

The 48-year-old Winters became a major league umpire in 1990 and worked the World Series in 2002 and last year.

Winters became the first umpire suspended since 2003, when Bruce Froemming and John Hirschbeck each were suspended for 10 days. Froemming made an anti-Semitic slur about an umpiring administrator and baseball said Hirschbeck threatened a senior official in the commissioner's office.

Bob Watson, baseball's vice president in charge of discipline, has not decided whether to penalize Bradley, the commissioner's office said.