The Tigers were playing the Orioles in Sarasota on Tuesday when Nate Robertson cleaned out his cubicle in the Marchant Stadium clubhouse in Lakeland and headed for Jupiter, Fla., spring training home of his new employers, the Florida Marlins. So the veteran left-hander, a Tiger since 2003, didn't get the chance to say good-bye.

But he left a hard-written note taped to his locker. Printed in large block letters, it read: "Thank you to everyone for being great teammates."

It was a class act by a class guy who --  regardless of what you may think of his pitching (51-68, 4.87 ERA), or the three-year, $21.25 million contract he signed in 2008 -- genuinely enjoyed being a Tiger and was convinced he had pitched well enough this spring to get back into the starting rotation.

Obviously, Tigers' management, meaning Jim Leyland and Dave Dombrowski,  thought otherwise. Robertson had been scheduled to face the Atlanta Braves on Thursday in the Tigers' Florida finale. Instead he found himself wearing a Marlins' uniform and pitching against the St. Louis Cardinals -- an April Fools Day turn of events that Robertson would have found unthinkable just a few days earlier.

Although Leyland and Robertson didn't always see eye-to-eye on the quality of some of Nate's pitching performances, Robertson was stunned and saddened by Tuesday's trade. "I wanted the Tigers to want me," Robertson told Tom Gage of the Detroit News, the only reporter on hand as he cleaned out of locker. Robertson made his home in Michigan year-around -- the only Tiger to currently do so. 

And I think Leyland, who spoke at length with Robertson on the phone after the trade was made, was sincere when he said he is happy that Nate will now get what he wanted: the chance to be a starting pitcher, albeit with the Marlins  rather than the Tigers.

Robertson will, in fact, be the Marlins' highest-paid player this year _ his $10 million salary easily surpassing Dan Uggla's $7.8 million, although $9.6 million of Nate's money will come courtesy of the Tigers. How Robertson's substantial salary will set with Marlins' fans will depend on how he pitches.

Once again we are reminded that, bottom line, baseball is a business.

Robertson was at the home he had rented this spring when Dombrowski phoned to inform him he was no longer a Tiger.

As Robertson, with mixed emotions, pulled into the empty Marchant Stadium parking lot to pick up his gear, he passed the huge van packed with all of the players' personal effects, including stuff belonging to Nate and his family, headed for Detroit.

Robertson was headed in one direction and his family's clothes and his young son's toys were headed in another. It was a side of baseball that is seldom seen or appreciated by fans.

Now Nate, who owns a home in Canton, Mich., must find a new place for his family to live in the Miami area.

        And instead of starting the third game of the season for the Tigers in Kansas City, as he was hoping to do, Robertson will make his first start of the 2010 season next weekend against the Los Angeles Dodgers in South Florida.

That's baseball.