Lookout Landing

First of all, I'd like to thank everybody who in some way contributed to my having a wonderful weekend. There are too many of you to name individually, but you guys should know who you are. Thank you to everyone who supported us and came out to the event. Thank you to everyone with whom I shared a meal, a drink, a meal and a drink, or an appetizer and several drinks. Thank you to my hosts. Thank you to my girlfriend. Thank you to every damn one of you that can tell a good story. Thank you to Dave for organizing this whole event and Matthew for finding the right location. Thank you to the people at Benaroya who accommodated a raucous crowd. Thank you to the impossibly patient waitress(es) at Elysian. Thank you to anyone I forgot. And, most of all, thank you to Jack Zduriencik, Tony Blengino, Jeff Kingston, Tom McNamara, and Randy Adamack for their facilitation and participation in an expo for nerds. Predominantly white, balding, male nerds. These are the weekends that make me think, man, I hope I never have to stop doing what I do.

Second of all, I'd like to apologize for being difficult to hear during the event. Dave and I had tested the acoustics on Friday and found them to be spectacular. As such, I imagined that, even if something I said wasn't picked up by the mic, it would still spread around the room. Apparently that didn't happen, and the back of the audience by and large found me incomprehensible. My mistake. Sitting on stage, it was impossible to hear much of anything, but I screwed up, and maybe next time someone could stand and yell "HEY QUIT SCREWING UP" at the beginning instead of waiting and making me feel bad afterwards. Whatever. Those of you seated towards the front were treated to the additional bonus of hearing what my awesome voice sounds like.

Now then, on to the actual event. I always get a kick out of how people respond to the off-the-record nature of these things. If you've never gone to one, you might be left with the idea that you're missing out on some super top secret information. That those of us listening in are getting tipped off as to what moves the team's going to make next. That's not how it goes. Nobody speaking is particularly interested in sharing anything private or juicy with a blog audience, and for this reason we generally don't even bother trying to ask questions about individual players or contract negotiations or whatever. I don't know any more about the state of the Felix situation now than I did last Friday. To expect these events to feature free and revealing dialogue is to be unreasonable.

They're off-the-record to make these things feel more intimate and casual. With the current setup, Mariner executives are given very little time to prepare their responses to questions. It wouldn't be fair to reproduce their words for public consumption. And the truth of the matter is that they will say some things that they wouldn't tell a larger audience. It's just that these things are jokes, or anecdotes, or little hints at philosophy. Come on. They know who we are. They know they can't say anything that might get them in trouble. Going off-the-record just allows them to speak more freely. What makes these events enjoyable isn't that we're treated to a truckload of inside info; what makes them enjoyable is that we get to directly engage our front office in conversation, and in so doing get to know them better as people and hear some wonderful stories along the way. I had a blast on Saturday, and I had a blast because Jeff, Tom, Tony, and Jack are just awesome people to talk to.

Still, I know those of you who couldn't make it want to hear a little something about what went on. And to that end, I'll say that, after listening to every response to every question (except for that one I missed while I was in the can), I came away thinking one thing:

We don't give enough credit to the front office.

Now, I don't mean that in the sense that we aren't kind enough. We give plenty of credit to the front office. More than pretty much any other fanbase in baseball, I bet. But when we give credit to the front office, we generally give credit to Z, instead of acknowledging every single member of the organization involved in the decision-making process. I think half the answers during the panel began with something like "well we're four guys up here, and we'll usually have four different opinions." Jack (who did most of the talking) made a point of emphasizing just how many people are involved in any decision the team makes. And I think we could all do a better job of recognizing that.

Don't get me wrong - Z is amazing, and as the ultimate authority as far as the roster is concerned, he deserves the bulk of the praise (and, on rare occasion, the criticism). But Z doesn't make decisions on his own. He's not the guy who says "I want Lee" and then makes it happen. Zduriencik had something to say. Blengino had something to say. Kingston had something to say. McNamara had something to say. Grifol had something to say. Fusco had something to say. A whole host of other people had something to say. It was not Z who made the Lee trade happen on Seattle's end - it was the sum of the input from a ton of guys in the front office. And for that reason, we should try to move away from praising the individual and more towards praising the group. Jack Zduriencik is in charge of the Mariner roster, but Jack Zduriencik is aided by a support staff finer than most any other in the league.

GMs get all the attention, but GMs, like managers, will get too much praise when something goes right, and too much criticism when something goes wrong. This is why I'm beginning to change my opinion of Dayton Moore. It's not that I think Moore is fabulous at what he does or anything. That certainly isn't the case. But it's not just Moore. If Kansas City's front office operates anything like Seattle's does - and I doubt any front office out there is an absolute monarchy - then it would appear that Moore is surrounded by clods. I don't know which of these names those clods might be, but there are clods in there, and it is those clods that, as a group, are steering the Royals in the wrong direction. It's not Moore that thinks it's a good idea to sign Jason Kendall. It's Moore's front office that thinks it's a good idea to sign Jason Kendall.

Now, the counter to this is that it's Moore's own fault if he's surrounded by idiots. And this is true. Most of the time, GMs are responsible for building their support staffs, and it seems like Moore screwed up, while Zduriencik hit a home run. For this exercise, you are free to focus primarily on the man at the top. Jack Zduriencik deserves all the credit in the world for surrounding himself with terrific people and terrific baseball minds that can, as a group, help move the organization towards a title.

But that's where I feel the individual praise should stop. I like Jack Zduriencik. I like him a lot. But I love love love the Seattle Mariner front office, and everybody involved therein, from the floor to the ceiling. It is the front office as a collective that has so dramatically turned the organization around, and though Jack is deserving of so many of our accolades, focusing on him I feel does everybody else an injustice.

Forget individual names. It's this front office - this entire front office - that ranks among the best in the game.

The weekend's one lowlight - criticism from one Steve C. about our public speaking. It seems Steve C. thoroughly enjoyed the second half of the panel, but found the first half to be a "waste of [his] time and money." Steve C. was offered a complete refund, which he instantly accepted. Steve C., I hope you enjoyed the event, because you're never attending another. You're a dick.