Brady's Take: Perhaps the Alex Rodriguez and Seattle Mariners' Fans Fences Can Be Mended
Let me be perfectly clear on this.
I know that sports is a business. At 34 years old, I don't begrudge players for leaving teams, and I don't begrudge them for going certain places for certain reasons, including money.
I get that guys want to live closer to home, want to be closer to family, want to maximize their earning potential. I get all of it at 34 years old.
Let me be perfectly clear on this, as well. When it comes to how Alex Rodriguez left the Seattle Mariners, I've never gotten over it. All the things I know at 34, I don't see with A-Rod. I still see him, or at least have seen him, like the guy he was when I was 12.
After hearing him speak on Seattle Sports 710 on Tuesday morning, I think my icy position on A-Rod is thawing, and I'd be willing to bet that it is for a lot of you as well.
See, I'm not necessarily mad at A-Rod for leaving. I'd seen Randy Johnson and Ken Griffey Jr. leave already. I was used to players leaving the Mariners. It's not that that hurt me as a young fan, it's that Alex Rodriguez is the reason I learned that sports was a business.
And it's a lesson I didn't want - at least not then. I believed - and wanted to believe - that the players who represented my team loved my team as much as I did. That the city that I loved meant as much to them as it did to me, and that they enjoyed playing for my team as much as I loved watching them.
A-Rod showed me that that wasn't the case. While athletes likely loved him for moving the financial bar forward, I couldn't stand him for taking my sports innocence. Sports wasn't about the team, or the city, or the love of the game, it was about money. It had been for a while, but I didn't know that, and I've never forgotten it now.
Throw in the fact that A-Rod said he wanted to go somewhere where he could win, and then left the ALCS participant Mariners for a bad Rangers team, and I learned that athletes aren't always honest, either. Another lesson I didn't want.
When Alex Rodriguez left the Mariners, he took something from me, and I've never forgiven him for it. After hearing him say that he wants to come back to Seattle and celebrate with the fans, and after hearing him say how much he loved his time in Seattle, and after hearing his reasoning for leaving in his own words, perhaps I'm finally ready to move on.
After all, I'm 34. Not 12.
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