Okay, quick survey...raise your hand if you've never dozed off at work, say in the middle of a long meeting or something interminable.

Yeah, that's what I thought. And heck, the Mariners' season this year is enough to put anybody to sleep, even The Kid. So I'm not too worried about his "behaviour" the other day. I guarantee you he's not the first major leaguer to fall asleep in the clubhouse while the game was still going on, and he won't be the last. It's not like they couldn't have sent a batboy in to wake him up if his presence was required.

Besides, he at least stayed at the stadium, unlike some other people I know...

What's more concerning (for me) is the main part of the story...that the M's are possibly going to release Junior if he doesn't retire first. Now, I'm not saying that the M's aren't justified in doing it. He's not exactly earning his roster spot right now - .208/.265/.234 ain't really getting it done (and it's always embarassing when your on-base percentage is higher than your slugging percentage).

What I'm saying is, don't release Junior. He doesn't deserve an ignominious end to his career like that. Come up with some dummy injury, stash him on the DL, bring him back when the rosters expand in September (or whenever the Mariners are well and truly out of the playoffs) and let him have one final end to the season. To let him go, or even force him to retire, before season's end just seems, well, incomplete.

Yes, it is special treatment. And quite possibly what I'm proposing goes against baseball rules (not like there haven't been other suspect "injuries" to players who are grossly underperforming). But if anyone deserves special treatment, it's Junior. After all, he is the most important person in the history of the Mariners franchise.

At least until Ichiro leads them to the 2013 World Series title.

Edit: Now MSNBC is reporting  that the Mariners have no plans to release Griffey, thus instantly making my post obsolete. Whatever. I'm leaving it up. My guess is that the Mariners front office did give Griffey the ultimatum, and now they're in spin control after the news was leaked.