"He likes it! Hey Mikey!"

Just call him Elmer, as he was the clubhouse glue in 2009.

Mike Sweeney will be joining the team again in Peoria with no guarantee to head north in April, a position he's become accustomed to, but a chance he feels is well worth taking...

“Last year was the most enjoyable year of my career,” Sweeney said on conference call from his home in San Diego. “Ever since I carried Ken Griffey Jr. off the field on my shoulders the last day of the season, I wanted to be back as a Seattle Mariner.”

“They’ve made it clear to me that it’s going to be an uphill battle to make the team,” Sweeney said.

“I like to think of myself as a fighter,” Sweeney said. “And come April 1 if I’m not coming north it may be a bitter pill to swallow, but at least I can live my life in freedom knowing that I played the game the right way, I played it hard. I definitely won’t have any regrets, nor will I wonder ‘what if.”’