Milledge Not Worried About His Standing

Jim Baumbach at Newsday, writes about Lastings Milledge and how his rap song may have altered the Mets view on him:

Asked if he is worried about his standing with the Mets following the rap controversy, he said, "My reputation is fine. Everything is OK. If it's not, then it's just something that I'm going to have to deal with and I'll go from there.

"But Mets officials are very image conscious and were clearly bothered by Milledge's use of the N-word as well as sexist terms for women on a song that was at one time available on the Internet at his record label's Web site.

The song was removed the same day Mets general manager Omar Minaya spoke out strongly against the use of that language. Minaya also called Milledge that day and said he expressed the organization's stance and disappointment.

Milledge, however, said, "We just talked about baseball. All that other stuff is irrelevant. It's about what I do between the lines ... That's really the only thing that matters."