While we all know sports is big business, for some there is a more human side to it.

Those that follow my columns are probably aware of my love for the San Jose Sharks hockey team. My daughter and granddaughter have both followed in my footsteps on that but this has been a very difficult offseason. At least for my granddaughter and I. We have both lost our favorite player on the team.

For me, it was Mario Ferraro, a defenseman who had been with the team since 2019 and was actually their longest tenured player this past season. He signed with the Winnipeg Jets as a free agent so I won’t be cheering him on in teal anymore.

I do have good memories, though. My daughter and niece went to the ‘Meet the Sharks’ event a few years ago – it was on a deadline day so I couldn’t attend – but when they got to step up for autographs to the table that Mario was sitting at, my daughter FaceTimed me so I could say hello ‘in person’ to my favorite player. He smiled (at that point, he didn’t have his two upper front teeth, they got replaced later on) and waved, said “Hi mom!” and was a bright spot on a hectic workday. Later, at an opening day ‘Teal Carpet’ event where you get to greet the players as they arrive in the afternoon prior to the first home game of the season, my daughter, granddaughter and I were able to grab a picture with him.

Big sigh. It’s a business; I understand. But I will miss him.

If it was hard for me, it was so much worse for my granddaughter, Lorelei.

Now 4½, she went to her first Sharks game at just 15 months old. She gets to go to several every season and has even been known to start the “Let’s Go Sharks!” chant for our section and more than once has been featured on the Jumbotron celebrating a goal.

Her favorite player, William Eklund, got traded this offseason. My daughter and I went into panic mode, not sure how to tell her. This is the player that she met at a practice, having her picture taken visiting with him and my daughter expressing the concern she showed when he had gotten hurt during a game. This is the player that saw my granddaughter holding up a sign for her “Ekky #72” and asking for a puck when we were down on the glass for warm-ups at a game this past season. My daughter had added the picture of Lorelei visiting with him at the practice arena onto the posterboard sign and, as he skated by, he took a quick look and then came back around, checking out the sign a little more closely. Then he came by, with a puck, pointed to Lorelei and tossed the puck over the glass, making sure it got into my daughter’s hands and then into Lorelei’s before he smiled and skated away.

We broke the news to her together. We told her we had something really important to tell her and shared that Mimi’s favorite player wasn’t a Shark anymore. She was sad for me … but then we told her Eklund wasn’t a Shark anymore either.

She stood there for a moment, her eyes welled up, she turned and silently walked away from the kitchen counter and went to the coffee table in the living room. She stood there with her back to us and started putting stickers on some paper.

I walked over and there were tears on her cheeks. She was putting hearts and rainbow stickers on paper. For her Ekky. We have to take it when Eklund’s new team, the Ottawa Senators, come to San Jose to play this season.

Her little heart was broken. I told her we can pick a new favorite player together. But it will take time to heal … probably lots of it.

From Lorelei and her Mimi, we send our love and best wishes to Ekky and Mario, on and off the ice.

Marg Jackson is editor of The Oakdale Leader, The Escalon Times and The Riverbank News. She may be reached at mjackson@oakdaleleader.com or by calling 209-847-3021.