My First Post

Since this is my first blog I think it is necessary to give some context of who I am. And since this is my blog and I can write whatever I want I am going to do just that! I am just this guy who has a passion for baseball, politics and taking an interest in the city where I live. This city happens to be Seattle, WA. I moved here 6 years ago from Washington, DC and am originally from Buffalo, NY. My sports interests are the Sabres, Bills and Terrapins. The University of Maryland was gracious enough to give me a college degree and 635 parking tickets as a parting gift.

What is missing from that list is a baseball team and a pro basketball team. Pro basketball has no appeal to me and probably never will. There is no allegiance to a baseball team either. Growing up, despising the Yankees came early on and has carried with me throughout my life. More on that in a different post.

Moving from Buffalo to the DC area (this is before the Nats came to town, leaving DC before they came to town) I became an Orioles fan. The Oriole Way was intriguing; hard work, pitching and defense. Bring up your own developed players from the farm system and put a good team on the field, year after year. Two things happened to the Orioles that made me sour on them. Peter Angelos bought the team. From this fan’s perspective, he single handedly drove that once proud franchise into the ground. He has not put a quality product on the field in 15+ years and the mindset of how he runs that team disgusts me. Given that he made the bulk of his money suing tobacco companies, he comes across as a quick fix guy, with little morals and that has shown with the product that he continually passes off as a baseball team and inflicts on the wonderful city of Baltimore.

Moving from DC to Seattle in 2004, it was the Red Sox time, and I became a fan of that particular Red Sox team. Watching them since 1986 and the infamous Bill Buckner play, my compassion for their long suffering fans drove me to root for them, much like the Cubs, who I would root for if they ever were to get into the World Series. I am by no means a die-hard Sox fan and the team has changed dramatically since then.

Living in Seattle, there is no choice but to follow the Mariners because it is the only game on TV. I’m too cheap to buy the baseball package and most of the games are on at 4:00 PST which interferes with work. I go to about 3-4 games per year and watch almost all of them on TV. I would not call myself a Mariners fan, but since I live here and take an interest in the local teams and the city, it makes sense to follow them. During the season, most of these posts will be about the Mariners.
Fanaticism lies in Bills’ football, Sabres’ hockey and Terrapin’s sports. In retrospect, that is a very tortured existence, but that is a post or 10 for this fall.

I am not a professional writer and don’t pretend to be. For a living, I perform random acts of corporate finance and accounting. I also try to keep breathing each day, be thankful for the simple things in life that bring happiness and joy and always remember that no act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted (Aesop).

Happy Fourth of July. God bless our independence and those who keep this country free.

PS – Rereading this blog post, there is too much reference to “I” and “Me”. Not usually my style, however it will be left on the site as a reference point and some context into who I am. It is of great assistance to me when I read other people’s writing, especially people that do this for a living, to know the context in which they write. Most sports writers will say they are objective but then again, I don’t spend a lot of time reading that type of work!!