By Brock Huard

There are excuses and explanations to explain away the 2010 “Believe Big” Mariners campaign. Jack Zduriencik has his reasons, and he has seen and heard more than any of us ever will. However, please don’t try to convince me Don Wakamatsu "lost the team."

This was not a mutiny. This was under-performance.

This was not sour grapes. This was sour execution.

This was not a message falling flat. This was flat-out selfishness on the part of many of the veteran “leaders.”

Wakamatsu never wavered. In my dozens of years in team sports as a player and now as an analyst, the coaches who struggled the most to reach their players were the coaches who struggled with their own message. That wasn’t Wakamatsu.

In 2009, the no-nonsense “belief system” challenged Yuniesky Betancourt and Felix Hernandez. One responded with a near Cy Young season and the other pouted and got dealt to Kansas City.

In 2009, the consistent, empowering “belief system” produced career years out of Franklin Gutierrez, Russell Branyan, David Aardsma and Mark Lowe. The calm, unwavering demeanor steadied a clubhouse and provided the confidence necessary to pull out so many one run victories en route to 86 on the year.

In 2010, the no-nonsense “belief system” confronted Milton Bradley, and he bolted the clubhouse. Wakamatsu pinch-hit week one for Chone Figgins and he whined. He even benched the franchise’s biggest and brightest star, and Junior packed his bags and headed home.

In 2010, Wakamatsu trusted and empowered Casey Kotchman, but he couldn’t hit. He believed in Ryan Rowland-Smith and Rob Johnson, but they didn’t deliver. He saw Jack Wilson, Lowe and Adam Moore hampered by injuries, and Wakamatsu never complained.

I am disappointed by the firing of Wakamatsu. I don’t think we will ever hear his side of “Sleepgate” or the Bradley meltdown. We won’t know how much he privately challenged Jose Lopez or what was said to Figgins. He won’t throw his players under the bus, make excuses or rip Jack Z for player acquisitions that simply didn’t work.

Don, you were the scapegoat for “Believe Big” and a class act through and through. You were a learning lesson for all middle-managers how fragile that job standing can be. You are a good baseball man, will land another baseball job, and I wish you nothing but success.

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