Mariners Clubhouse

Reading ESPN.com this morning, I came across and interesting story involving Ichiro Suzuki and his teammates. Apparently, an M's player said something to a Mariners' insider about an incident earlier this year in which an Ichiro teammate said that he wanted to "knock" Ichiro out. Furthermore, the insider said that there is a large number of Mariner players who just flat out dislike Ichiro, to the point that the insider was surprised a bunch of players didn't just "go after him."

The frustrating part of the story is the idea that somebody inside the Mariners family would go to the insider with all of this information. Playing on sports teams in college and high school, I know that there is a certain code that everybody mutually follows: problems are kept in-house. It's pathetic to think of a grown-up, a major-league baseball player, thinking he needs to say something about this. It doesn't matter if it's true; it doesn't matter if every player on the Mariners hates Ichiro. If you've got a personal problem with a guy, then you go to his face and tell him what you're thinking. Although it would be hard to think why someone wouldn't respect and appreciate the numbers that Ichiro puts up every year, while playing hard every night. It just really makes which ever player this was that brought up the story look very weak. Why would somebody want people on the outside now to think negative thoughts about the Mariners? Why would you, as a player, want to have people think there's problems in your clubhouse? It just doesn't make sense. Next time, man up and go to the source if you've got something to say.