The Ladies of John McLaren's Life

For some reason it was "John McLaren: Up Close and Personal" day in the Seattle papers, with a columnist from each writing about a woman in his life.

The P-I's Jim Moore talked to McLaren's wife Maria at the optical store she owns in Glendale, not far from the M's training camp in Peoria.

Maria, Moore reports, is McLaren's second wife. When he married her in 2002, after a seven year courtship, he also took on the responsibility of raising her two kids, who were teenagers at the time. Which is pretty cool. What's sweeter is how McLaren popped the question:

Five years later, McLaren proposed to her on Valentine's Day in the Bobby McGee's parking lot. McLaren handed Maria his eyeglasses case and asked if she could adjust them. She thought that was odd but opened it up and saw an engagement ring dangling from his glasses.

He played her favorite song on the CD player -- "Madly, Truly, Deeply" by Savage Garden -- and the lyrics might put him in the Husband Hall of Fame:

"I'll be your dream, I'll be your fantasy, I'll be your hope, I'll be your love," and it goes on like that to the chorus: "I want to stand with you on a mountain, I want to bathe with you in the sea, I want to lay like this forever, Until the sky falls down on me."

McLaren excitedly called his mom to tell her the news, and while the phone was ringing, he looked at Maria and said: "You did say yes, didn't you?"

McLaren's mom said: "It's about damn time."

Awww. That foul-mouthed mom is an important aspect of Jerry Brewer's story on McLaren. Brewer calls the M's manager "an epic crier." His emotional nature, Brewer posits, is the result of growing up in a fatherless family. McLaren's mom supported the family working a 4am to 4pm shift at a local fried chicken restaurant. They were poor, but "never did without," McLaren says. Check out how his mom paid for John to go to baseball camp.

When he was 13, McLaren wanted to go to Missouri for instruction at the Mickey Owen Baseball School. It was too expensive, but Jackie came up with a plan. She paid half of the registration fee on time, and while her son was en route to the camp, she sent the rest of the money through Western Union. The funds arrived just in time.

So this stand-up, emotional son of a near-saint is the man we're going to be pissed at when he leaves Washburn in too long? I don't think I can do it.

McLaren, please make perfect decisions all year, it's going to be near-impossible to boo you.