Enjoy the journey

I fear at this late hour I find myself completely out of whatever cleverness my faculties possess. But I did want to take a moment and talk about the last two days on the site.

The Mariners are shitty. Again. They are shitty in a way that somehow we haven't quite experienced before. Repeated injury develops scar tissue but for many, myself included and I've been a fan of this team since 1985 or so, this hurt found fresh, virgin purchase in our hearts. The only time I can remember feeling quite this hopeless about the state of the organization was 2008, Bill Bavasi's last year.

So, that sucks. Also tomorrow the Seahawks open training camp, which around here is now something close to a regional holiday. That's with good reason. The Seahawks have brought more joy to the Northwest region in the last 3 years than literally anything, sports or no, that I have ever seen. Danny Kelly runs a fine ship with a talented group of hard working writers at Field Gulls. I highly recommend it once the season gets started if that's your thing. You probably already know that. They have a much larger readership than we do.

Yesterday and today were something we planned in advance. Our working title for yesterday was "Feels Day" which turned out to be just "everyone write something from your heart that you feel good about writing" day. That was to set the stage for today, which we entitled "AP Day", where the goal was to provide as much content with as little flavor as we possibly could.

There was no one particular reason for this little exercise. I think in some ways it was our attempt to rage against the official death knell of this season and the understanding that 2015 is going to be like so many other seasons: Filled with defeat and sadness.

Defeat and sadness. Those are emotions that permeate not just the team, or its fanbase but inevitably at times the very heart of this community we call Lookout Landing. I think maybe today and yesterday were our attempts to reject that idea that the team's fortunes control and direct where this community can go. I, we want you readers to know: We will not let the Mariners control the quality of this site. While we may sometimes be sad, or indulgent, or wrong, or angry, or any number of things we will not be beholden to the record of this silly team that this place orients itself around.

Cynicism is a bad thing, one of the worst things that I have experienced. It has a way of putting barbs on the clubs that life hits you with, and rotting the stench of its flowers. The one thing we are striving for and committing to around here is the avoidance of cynicism. Not of the team of course. They're terrible! They deserve our scorn and maybe even cynicism. Indeed rightly the Mariners can more often than not just get bent. What we will avoid like the plague is cynicism about what this place is, and what it can be.

We, you, I, the staff, the lurkers, the commenters, those that first logged onto their AOL account and typed "http://www.leoneforthird.com" into their browser, we are a part of something great. Yesterday and today were our humble attempt as a staff to make that statement; a statement of belief in Lookout Landing, what is was, what it is, what it stands for, and what it can be. So tonight, before tomorrow goes back to business as usual let me say on behalf of Colin, Meg, Patrick, Eric, Logan, Peter, Matt, Jake, Anders, Michael, David, Andrew, Jose, Scott, and myself:

Thank you very much for reading. Goms.