Dear A-Rod,
A year ago in this space, I begged and pleaded with you to stay in Seattle. I offered my spleen if it would convince you to sign for less money and stay with the team that gave you your start. I even said that the people of Seattle “needed” you.
How foolish I was.
The Mariners need you, A-Rod, like they need a hole in the head. Whales need a beach more than the Mariners need you. Seattle fans need you like they need another coffee-house chain.
Please don’t come back.

Seattle’s success has been well documented this season. Manager Lou Piniella, who guided the Reds to the World Championship in 1990, can finally manage the Mariners without a superstar ego to trip him up. Under Piniella, Seattle has gotten back to grassroots, hold-your-thumbs-in-your-britches baseball. Hits win ballgames, not home runs.
But you know all this, A-Rod. Your team is the yin to Seattle’s yang. The Mariners won 116 games, your Texas Rangers — who shelled out $252 million for 10 years of pure A-Rod — lost 89 games. Seattle is thinking World Series in 2001, Texas is praying for 2010.
Oh A-Rod, A-Rod, A-Rod. Why did you have to take the money and run? You could have stayed and taken the ring. This season has proven to be about the little guys, not the big-salaried, big-headed baseball behemoths. Boone, Bagwell and Berkman, not A-Rod, you buffoon.
A quick word of advice, A-Rod, in case you’re still holding out, waiting for the Mariners to lose in the playoffs so you can flash that million-dollar smile with your head held high: Don’t cut that cake yet. The Mariners will win in the playoffs, mostly because of your absence.
Seattle won 116 games the postseason way. Small plays. Good pitching. Clutch defense under pressure. Hits. Hits. Hits that lead to rallies. Rallies. Rallies. With you, A-Rod, it was always about the home runs. The big, SportsCenter-worthy plays at shortstop. It almost worked, too, as the M’s came within a few big plays of beating the Yankees in the American League Championship Series last season.
But when the M’s face the Yankees again — or Oakland, if the red-hot A’s can knock off New York — Seattle won’t need big plays. They will win on the Lou Piniella “116 games to a better team” plan. Seattle will use strong starting pitching and a formidable bullpen to pick up the slack if the starters don’t perform. The M’s will play so-called “small ball” on offense, by singling and doubling in runs, not swinging for the proverbial fences.
So please don’t come back, A-Rod. The Mariners won without you, and they will win more without you.
You see, A-Rod, Seattle is a team without you, not a loose collection of players. They trust each other, they lean on each other, and they celebrate with each other. No Mariners player worries about hogging too much of the limelight, because there’s no limelight to hog. Seattle’s super season is a team effort, from top to bottom.
The Mariners’ success this season proves you were the problem last year. You were the one-man wrecking crew — of your own team.
Players respond well to chemistry, A-Rod. Chemistry is a word you may never utter in your entire career, until you drop that bloated salary. Look at Bret Boone, who hit .256 in his last three seasons before coming to Seattle. This year, Booney broke out for a .331 average, fourth in the American League, and led the league with 141 RBI’s. Countless other Mariners had career seasons, either on the field or at the plate.
I almost feel sorry for you, A-Rod. Almost. In an era of overblown salaries and bigger egos, you made out with both.
But you proved that the good guys win. You proved that you don’t need a star player to win baseball games, and you proved that money can’t buy love, or wins. In that vain, A-Rod, I will leave you with a quote. Ironically, the quote comes from a fan who attended the Mariners-Rangers game Saturday night, when Kazuhiro Sasaki struck you out for the final out of the game and Seattle’s 116th win.
The fan held up a sign that read “Victory — a feeling $$ can’t buy.”