Newsday: Rangers don’t regret parting with Ponson

Never Mind the Reunion Here’s Sidney Ponson.

The Rangers had little to say yesterday about the portly 31-year-old, who reportedly earned his release by challenging a hotel bartender to a fight, objecting to manager Ron Washington’s removing Ponson from a game, then challenging Washington to a fight after being told he would start a day later than scheduled.

“I’ve seen some things from Sidney that I wouldn’t necessarily do myself, but that doesn’t make Sidney a bad guy,” said Milton Bradley, who has had some behavior problems of his own. “I didn’t know what happened. One day, Sidney was on the team, the next day he was gone.”

Bradley was quoted last month as saying of Ponson: “Man, that dude has some issues.” Bradley took issue with that yesterday, saying he’d said only that Ponson had issues while he was a Ranger and that the two said hello before Monday night’s game at the Stadium.

“I don’t know how [that quote] came out like that,” Bradley said. “I just talked to him. Obviously, he must not have heard it.”