Peter Gammons - Plagiarist?

EDIT: Gammons has posted an apology and a clarification. I for one believe that this was an honest mistake by Gammons but I do think it shows that with all the work ESPN asks Gammons to do - he badly needs an assistant to do both remedial editing and checking for these types of ommissions. If Bill Simmons gets an intern then Gammons should rate a full staff.

This doesn't look good. Yesterday Peter Gammons put up a new column at ESPN.com that had a sidebar that read:

Reaching out

Milton Bradley and close friend C.C. Sabathia had a candid discussion about Bradley on Super Bowl Sunday.

Bradley said Sabathia was still angry because Bradley's behavior prompted the trade to the Dodgers before last season. "C.C. is like my brother and when he said, 'You left me and I'm still upset,' that was real," Bradley said. "We wanted to turn Cleveland into a powerhouse, and I see now that my actions were wrong and hurt people."

When the Dodgers traveled from Vero Beach, Fla., to Winter Haven to play the Indians in spring training, Bradley made sure he was one of the few regulars to make the two-hour bus ride.

"By trading me they made a big statement about the direction the organization was going," he said. "I understand they had to do it. I needed to go to Winter Haven to talk to some people. I needed to go for closure."

Fascinating. Bradley is a very good person who has long dealt with demons, and this acceptance of responsibility may signal that he is on the right path. Everyone who knows him hopes so.

Compare that to what Steve Henson wrote for the LA Times on Tuesday:

Former Cleveland teammate and close friend C.C. Sabathia had a candid discussion with Bradley on Super Bowl Sunday, saying he was still angry because Bradley's behavior prompted the trade to the Dodgers before last season.

The final incident in Bradley's tumultuous 2 1/2 years in Cleveland came at the end of spring training when Manager Eric Wedge thought Bradley did not run out a pop-up.

"C.C. is like my brother and when he said, 'You left me and I'm still upset,' that was real," Bradley said. "We wanted to turn Cleveland into a powerhouse, and I see now that my actions were wrong and hurt people."

When the Dodgers traveled from Vero Beach, Fla., to Winter Haven to play the Indians in spring training, Bradley made sure he was one of the few regulars to make the two-hour bus ride.

"By trading me they made a big statement about the direction the organization was going," he said. "I understand they had to do it. I needed to go to Winter Haven to talk to some people. I needed to go for closure."

The sidebar from Gammon's column has been taken down. This doesn't look good for Gammons or for ESPN.

I've seen some people try to blame this error on the attribution to the sidebar being inadvertenly cropped out. My guess and this is only a guess is that either:

A: Gammons cut and pasted the Henson piece meaning to attribute it with a comment on the outlook for Bradley but in his haste Gammons forgot or

B: There was a link but the editors at ESPN got rid of it because they normally don't link to outside news sources (being the World Wide Leader and all).

No matter what - this is shoddy journalism. I actually think the taking of the sidebar down and pretending like it didn't happen is probably the worse offense.

It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this.

Hat tip to Dodger Thoughts

EDIT: This is also being discussed at SportsJournalists.com