"Milton Bradley grabbed the microphone Wednesday afternoon, stone faced, jaw clenched. Staring back at him was a gym full of elementary school students.

First thought: Uh oh.

Just 17 hours earlier, Bradley had quit on his team in his latest angry meltdown. He had a heated exchange with Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu, was pulled from Tuesday night's game and then fled the clubhouse before the game ended. And now, in a bizarre coincidence, he stood at a pre-scheduled team function, advising impressionable youth.

It felt apocalyptic.

And then Mad Milton turned into Moving Milton.

He talked to the Lakeridge Elementary School students about motivation. He told them his mother's struggle inspired him to become a millionaire athlete, told them about how she scraped together money working in a grocery store, told them about her two piles of bills — the ones she could pay and the ones she couldn't.

"I wanted to do something in my life, to make enough money so she could retire," Bradley said during the Mariners' annual D.R.E.A.M. Team event."