04/06/2001

ARLINGTON – Loyalty is like tax relief. The people who complain about its absence generally are the ones who stand to gain the most from it. Employers, mostly.

And fans. They swear allegiance to a player, put his poster on the wall and stamp his number on their hearts, till death or detox do us part.

Athletes aren't loyal as a rule. They come by infidelity naturally. Organizations rear them this way, showing by example that they can be disposed of at the first sign of a failing arm or slow bat or something in a more attractive waggle.

Athletes understand how the game is played. Alex Rodriguez is counting on it when he sees his former teammates for the first time this weekend.

Nothing personal.

"I felt like I had 24 brothers over there," he said of the Seattle Mariners, the team he left for the Rangers. "It couldn't have gone any better.

"If it was just based on teammates and manager and staff, I would have signed a contract there forever."

Of course, it wasn't based on anything so sentimental. He had lots of reasons for signing with the Rangers.

Two hundred fifty-two million of them.

Maybe you noticed that some people were upset about the contract. Fans cried, media howled, owners gnashed their teeth.

You'd have thought Bowie Kuhn had come back.

But you didn't hear a lot of complaining from players. Most have studied just enough economics to understand the trickle-down effect: Players at the top of the food chain make so much money that it overflows their pockets, or at least that's the theory being advanced by defense attorneys for the Philadelphia 76ers' former conditioning coach.

As for the players he left behind, A-Rod is convinced that they don't hold it against him.

"Those guys are my friends for life," he said. "A whole bunch of them called me and congratulated me after I signed the contract."

Amid all the hoo-haw, you haven't heard a sharp word from the Mariners. Edgar Martinez, one of A-Rod's best friends, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on Thursday, "I think it's going to be just fine getting to see him. But when we take the field, it's all baseball and we're all aware of that."

Said center fielder Mike Cameron: "I thought if he had stayed, we would compete for a world championship every year, but he's gone now. I just wish the best for him."

By now, catcher Dan Wilson said, the Mariners are getting used to losing their superstars. First, Randy Johnson, then Ken Griffey Jr., and now A-Rod.

"It's been a little easier to move on each time," Wilson said.

Not that it will be easy on Rodriguez. Kenny Rogers knows. The first time he faced the Rangers after he left for the Yankees in '96, Rogers found it difficult to separate his emotions from his job after 14 years in the Rangers' organization.

"It's just a weird feeling for a little while," he said. "Even the first few times I pitched against the Rangers."

Rafael Palmeiro knows. He left Texas for Baltimore after the '93 season with a trailer full of bitter feelings toward Rangers management, and he couldn't hide them when he played his old club.

"With me," he said, "I felt like I had something to prove, so I stepped it up."

Will A-Rod? Palmeiro said the Rangers' new shortstop has nothing to prove, but it doesn't mean his old teammates won't end up feeling the brunt of a message.

"They're watching the game back in Seattle," Palmeiro said.

For his part, A-Rod said he expects it will be a little emotional. A quarter-billion dollars doesn't buy your feelings, nor does it necessarily cause hard feelings. His old manager, Lou Piniella, still tears up when he talks about the player who started out in the Mariners' organization in 1994, at 18.

As it turns out, A-Rod knows, too. This isn't the first time he changed teams. He switched high schools after his freshman year in Miami, and he remembers what it felt like to look in the other dugout and see the faces of former teammates.

A little sad. Poignant.

Weird.

He smiled a little.

"It's almost like a scrimmage, you know?"

Kevin Sherrington can be reached at 214-977-8447 or .