The Winter of our Discontent
Wow, that was a rough offseason. One of the slowest ever for MLB, and particularly tedious for Mariners fans. The vibe among Mariners fans is.....not great right now. I was running with our baby at Green Lake yesterday while wearing a Mariners sweatshirt and hat and some high school boy yelled "THE MARINERS WILL NEVER WIN" like the fuckin' Wicked Witch of the East as I ran past. There's a small sample size for you of Seattle, high school boys, and the feelings they have all have toward the Mariners.
But, alas, pitchers and catchers have reported. There will be a game a week from today. It will not count, but it will fill my soul with glee. Bad and/or practice baseball is better than no baseball at all.
There is no denying that the 2018 Mariners have the potential to fail spectacularly. There is absolutely no logical reason for optimism, other than the simple fact that we don't know anything yet about how this team will actually perform. Sure, we can assume a shitload of things based on how seasons past have gone. We all slip into Mariners Pessimism (TM) from time to time. But, it's a fatalistic and calcified stance that will take all the joy out the game we love to follow if you stay in it for too long. Or all the time.
Weird things happen in baseball every season. I am excited to see how this squad pans out. Will I be surprised if they fail miserably, or more likely, fail in a mediocre fashion? Of course not. But, I can't help but hold onto some amount of hope that they will surprise me in another, better way.
I will be covering the Mariners again this season on Lookout Landing. We have such a fantastic, smart, and and fun staff. We're all doing this out of passion for this historically terrible baseball team and I think we do a damn good job in terms of quality and quantity of content. Literally no other Mariners related media outlet covers the team the way we do, and with the freedom that we're able to do it. Whether it's discussing the latest Mariner news on the LL Slack or working on an article, being a part of the LL staff is a true source of joy in my life, the likes of which I've never gotten from any professional work in my life. That's a bit sad, but true.
So even though the 2017 team was mostly miserable and injury-ridden, I still had a blast and I would like to share some of my favorite .gifs that I put together for recaps and articles over the course of the 2017 season. Enjoy and go freakin' Mariners.
America's pastime
when your son comes thru with the early father's day gift
Nelson Cruz's go-ahead monster home run versus the Nationals
when you're not a power hitter so you sprint AND bat flip out of the box
most CFs don't even get close to touching a ball hit that hard but haha byron buxton ya burnt
that one time james paxton was healthy and completely owned the astros in houston
RIP in Peace, Tropicana Field. Love, Nelson Cruz
and one from the archives, the worst high-five of all time, as performed by Lou Piniella