There’s no question that Mike Sweeney has the passion to keep playing baseball. What he and the Seattle Mariners will learn at spring training is whether he still has the game.
The Mariners signed Sweeney, a five-time All-Star, to a minor league contract Thursday with an invitation to spring training. For the 35-year-old Sweeney, it will be an all-or-nothing camp.
If he makes the team, it’ll be another impressive comeback from injury.
If he doesn’t, he’ll retire.
“I’m going to go to camp, put my head down and leave everything I can on the field,” he said. “If things don’t work out and I don’t make that trip to Minnesota to open the season, I’ll probably just sail off into the sunset to San Diego with my wife and three kids, be thankful for the opportunity and look to the next chapter of my life.”
He has played 14 major league seasons, 13 with the Royals and last year with the A’s, and has a .299 career batting average with 199 home runs and 849 runs batted in.
He batted .286 last year with the A’s, having made the team out of spring training after overcoming back problems and signing a minor league contract. Knee surgery limited him to 85 games and a rehab that lasted from May 29 to Sept. 2.
The A’s released him on Sept. 9 and Sweeney seriously considered retiring then.
“It was the first time in my 14-year career that I’d taken a blow like that and it was a tough pill to swallow,” he said. “A few weeks later I started getting calls from a few teams, so I started cranking it back up in the gym.”
Sweeney, who said he solved major back issues two years ago by practicing the yoga-like method of stretching and exercise called Egoscue, felt so good during his offseason workouts that he called off retirement.
Among the teams he talked with was the Mariners, who Sweeney called a great fit for several reasons.
His wife, Shara, is a former volleyball player at Pacific Lutheran University and they have a home in Gig Harbor. The Mariners continue to look for a DH, which seems to be Sweeney’s place now although he says he can still play first base.
Playing for the Mariners also would reconnect Sweeney with one of his passions, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He won the 2007 Hutch Award, an honor that gave him a chance to experience what the center offers.
“I’m hoping that even though there are some red flags on my resume, that when I get to camp, those concerns will be squashed and I can begin from Day 1 having an impact on this team,” he said.
And he isn’t talking only about what he can do on the field. Known as one of the great people in the big leagues, Sweeney would like to bring leadership to the Mariners.
“We played 18 or 19 games against the Mariners last year, and from the opposite dugout it looked like a team that didn’t have any unity and there wasn’t much life,” he said. “I hope I can bring these guys together because there’s strength in numbers.
“If I play another three years or three weeks, when I walk away I’ll be a proud man. Right now the door is still open. I know there are no guarantees, but I’ll be excited to walk through that door.”
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