Over the past year and a half I've taken my fair share of shots at Milton Bradley. Watching him play last year for the Cubs was brutal at times and his attitude sure didn't help matters. I saw a bit of an interview with writer Elizabeth Merrill on Baseball Tonight a few days ago, about her recent interview with Bradley, who has returned to the Mariners following a stay on the restricted list to sort out his personal problems. You can find her article here. It's a real eye-opening look at this controversial player and his struggles with depression.

I'm sure that there are some fans out there who are going to dismiss this attempt by Bradley to come to terms with himself. He's done the anger management thing to little effect in the past. However, as one who suffers from the occasional bouts of deep depression, I found myself relating to Bradley and his difficulties. I really wish that he had been able to be honest with himself, the team, and the fans while he was in Chicago. Maybe things would have turned out differently, or maybe they wouldn't have, but I would have been able to better understand where Milton was coming from. I've felt what he felt, albeit on a much smaller, less public scale.

I think it's great that the Mariners and their fans are giving Bradley every opportunity for redemption and are showing him understanding. I only wish that Milton had given Chicago and Cub fans a chance to do the same. Sure there are Cub fans who are dicks, but no more so than the average baseball fans (okay, maybe there might be a slightly higher percentage of dicks). I think he's done such a great job of masking his real issues behind his angry persona that it was hard for people to feel sympathy for him.

If you've never had depression, you can't really understand what it's like. You can't just man up, suck it up, and get over it. It's a fucking disease, an insidious soul-killing disease. Even a man who appears to have everything: a multimillion dollar salary, loving wife and child, and great athletic ability can suffer from it. In a way, I imagine that only made things worse for Bradley. You know you're supposed to be happy and yet there's something inside you that won't allow it and you feel even worse for not being happy when you should. I've ridden that train before and believe me, it sucks.

So I'm done making fun of Milton Bradley. I honestly wish him the best of luck in Seattle and I hope he finds what he's looking for. As a Cub fan, I only wish things had gone better for him here and that he'd been able to conquer his demons sooner.