The current offtop has hit over 1000 comments, and my poor dinolaptop is struggling. For those of you with lesser hardware, a new post awaits! I'm heading to Redding, CA this weekend after eight years of saying "maybe" with a friend who lives down there, which brings me to some prompts put together for the sake of making an offtopic post...

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Look, let's get one thing straight: there are people whom you root for; every one on the current Mariner roster falls into this category for me. That's because the Mariners have been, are and always will be my team. This also includes names like Randy Johnson, even when he was pitching for Arizona, New York and San Francisco. It includes Derek Lowe. It includes Mike Cameron, prized center fielder who helped Seattle forget the pain of Griffey leaving us just by being awesome himself.

But then...then there are players for whom rooting is not enough. There are players that you idolize, to whom you ascribe fantastical powers--even in a slump, you want that man hitting because dammit, no matter what, he's your guy! These guys, you go to the stadium and you make posters, you buy their jerseys. And even if they're not the best guy on the team, you want their autograph. For me, this has been a fairly short list: Jay Buhner (even when he played in the same outfield as baseball god Ken Griffey, Jr.), Ichiro Suzuki, Kenji Johjima. Over the last three seasons, one name has taken this fervor to heights I haven't known since Mike Blowers was the M's third baseman. Brandon Morrow is that man.

I just want to get that out there: I am not a Brandon Morrow supporter. I am a Brandon Morrow fan. I have put my hope in his progression; I have seen his performance, his flashing moments of brilliance, and I want to believe that he will one day put it all together and be a name people mention in the same breath as Felix Hernandez, Justin Verlander, Zack Greinke. I have a stuffed rabbit form Build-A-Bear decked out in a Mariners uniform. His name is Morrow. Brandon's first career start, against the Yankees, during which he no-hit the most formidable offensive line up in baseball for more than 7 innings? I was there. His second no-hit bid against the A's a year later? I wish I had been there, but I watched every inning with a giddy excitement thinking Finally! and anticipating the moment I could leap and tell everyone I told you! I told you! Morrow's awesome!.

So what I am about to type should be taken with that grain of salt. I know Morrow hasn't put it all together yet. On raw facts, on just watching, rationally speaking, he's crumbled as often as he's injected me with that maddening hope. But I don't care. I'm not a supporter. I'm a fan.

I hated the Brandon League-Brandon Morrow trade. Despite my fandom, I just want to throw out that the trade doesn't even sit well with me on a rational level.

I have bored so many people to death with baseball statistics that it probably just lets people glaze over it, but I want to go into that arena anyway. I want to compare Brandon Morrow straight up to Brandon League, and look at his statistical postings against similar players throughout baseball history. I want you to be a Brandon Morrow fan.

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