and when i say atlanta, i mean the braves

so the other day i posted about how ANNOYED i was with atlanta for prohibiting the seattle fans from getting their nostalgia fix by stealing ken griffey jr from us, the fans who were there for the first 11 years of his baseball life.

well. it seems that i may have to take a step back from dressing them down.

see, on tuesday, an atlanta paper published a story that jr had decided to sign with atlanta. which of course started a flurry of "atlanta sucks" comments & feelings from the seattle fans. and i was on that band wagon. (technically i still AM on that band wagon.) i'm not a national league girl. never have been. and i'm a true blue mariner fan & hometown fan kind of girl. (or homer, whichever you prefer.) about an hour or so after THAT story surfaced, was a denial by jr that he had chosen, yet.

so, there was still hope alive in the hearts of all jr fans that our beloved "kid" might, just MIGHT come home to be celebrated as he deserves.

this is a new position for most mariner fans. i can't recall another mariner who has gone to play with another team that would be welcomed home with such open arms & excitement. maybe jamie moyer, who now plays with philly. but that's about it. our greats have retired. edgar martinez, jay buhner. yes, we had randy johnson & alex rodriguez but i honestly don't think that mariner fans would want EITHER of them back, EVER. jr is the exception to that rule.

why? because he helped not only save baseball in seattle (1995 refuse to lose season anyone?) but he also helped to get our beautiful safeco field built. and he was a perennial all star for 10 of his 11 years here. and he's ALWAYS been a fan favorite. when he left the town was crushed. when he came back in 2007 he got a heroes welcome, even though he wore the opponents uniform. standing ovations. declarations of love from the fans. from the management.

and a declaration from jr himself that he wanted to return to seattle to finish his career. to retire a mariner. to go into the hall of fame as a mariner.

and atlanta swooped in at the last minute to try to turn that dream into a nightmare. and for that i'll never forgive them. luckily they didn't succeed and jr WILL return to the town that loves him. who is excited about baseball for the first time in a few years. yes, he's not the player he was in his prime. but he's a mariner. a family member that we've missed for the last 9 years. and i couldn't be happier.

but the braves? they can still suck it.