2011 Voyage over for Jeff’s Mariners Fan Blog

I managed to watch part of tonight’s game while I was packing for my flight to Italy in the morning and was not even fazed by the 7-0 trouncing at the hands of The Oakland A’s as I was focusing on my thoughts for my farewell Mariners Blog for 2011. I guess to sum it up this long season which began for me in Peoria was slightly better than 2010 and a little less painful to watch and write about. I did pick the Mariners to finish third this year and for awhile it looked like we were going to do that or better until the melt-down in the ninth to the Nationals when my gut told me this whole competing thing was over. It was fun watching our guys play over their heads for a couple of months and if Jack Z. can find the elusive big bat to add to this lineup this winter we may get to compete longer than two months next year.

I started this season as a last place sort of Blog again this year behind the corporate media and more established sabermetrics type sites here in the Mariners Blogoshere. And for a minute during our hot-streak my numbers really began to pick-up but alas the 17-game losing streak came and all the fair weather fans stopped paying attention to the Mariners. So once again after my second year in the Mariners Blogoshere I find myself just like the Mariners at the bottom of the heap. But of course I don’t care as after 30 years as a Mariners fan I have learned to take the long view. I continue to operate this site without the cheesey advertisments that many of my fellow bloggers seem to chase in order to make a few bucks to offset the costs associated with producing and maintaining a website to host a Mariners Blog. Yes you guessed it I do this for the love of the game and do appreciate all my loyal readers from around the world who have stuck with me over this long voyage.

I also want to thank the Seattle PI and the other sites who have carried my posts on a regular basis along with my regular commenters ie Mike and Scott who actually contributed several great article this year. For what it is worth I realize that my grammar and punctuation are not always perfect but for an old Merchant Mariner who hunts and pecks out each post I think I am making some slight progress after my second year on a job that pays nothing!

I will be out of the country for the next 11 days and though I won’t be to upset to miss Anthony Vasquez’s final start of the year for the 2011 Mariners, I will be wondering who wins the AL and NL wild card spots while I am in transit to Genoa. By the time I get back first round of the playoffs will be over and I hope to write some postseason Blogs once I pick my bandwagon teams!

But for now this will be the final regular season post on the 2011 Seattle Mariners. I again want to thank all of my loyal readers and look forward to picking things back up again in Peoria next spring. I love Baseball and as bad as this year was I do see some hope for the future, remember “Hope Floats” Go Mariners http://jeffsmariners.com