I will be out of town until next week, so my contributions until after the Denver game will be limited. Look for posts from Riley Moore, a contributor to 12th Man Rising, and Ryan Nickum’s weekly Top 12 list.

Thank you for your patience and continued participation on the blog. Go Seahawks!

Shaun Dolence: dolencesm@gmail.com
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Losing Mark Lowe twinges a bit, but man good for Jack Zdureincik getting a haul for half a season of Cliff Lee.

Trading baseballs best pitcher to a division rival is unorthodox, but considering the financial ruin that is the Texas Rangers, they won’t be able to sign him when he gets $20 million+ on the open market.

The prize coming back is slugging first baseman Justin Smoak, widely regarded as one of baseballs premier prospects.

Also coming back are Blake Beavan, Josh Lueke, and Matt Lawson in the deal.

And man, spurning the Yankmees and using their offer as leverage?

F&*king sweet!

I hope George Steinbrenner pissed himself and one of his assistants have to change his diaper!

And as our Mariners blog Sodo Mojo puts it:

If you are the Texas Rangers, would you trade even Justin Smoak alone for Philippe Aumont, Tyson Gillies, Mark Lowe, and J.C. Ramirez?

Lets just suffice to say, the Mariners got a better return than what they gave for Cliff Lee, and that might even be a slight understatement.

If I lived in any other major city, perhaps I would have a snippet of sympathy for LeBrons not so surprising decision to pair up with two of the best players at their respective positions in basketball down in South Beach.

If I lived in any other major city, perhaps I would actually have a snippet of passion to support the game of basketball.

But I don’t, because I live in Seattle, Washington.

Sure, losing LeBron James sucks, watching that tonight, must’ve hurt worse than a bowling ball to the nuts.

Get over it.

You still have a playoff caliber basketball team able to lose a player, able to sign a player, able to buy a ticket to go and see.

Ever heard of Clay Bennett? Greg Nickels?

Losing LeBron doesn’t compare to watching you team slowly deteriorate, getting the stars shipped off for scraps (one of which you actually have), and then transforming into a perennial playoff contender all within the span of two years.

In a way, we did lose LeBron in the form of watching the man who outscored him this season leave our city after one season. We only got one season of watching the guy who has been BETTER than LeBron was, not seven.

Not only did our best players get shipped off for scraps, Sonics fans got to watch the slow and painful legal process take course. We were going to win the lawsuit, until Frank Chop f&*ked it all up. We got to sit and watch while Clay Bennett masterfully stole an NBA team from a top ten market and plopped it in the 44th all for a $40 million settlement on breaking the arena lease.

Instead of watching a big three of Ray Allen, Rashard Lewis, and Kevin Durant make the playoffs we got to watch while some of our former pieces he gave away made the NBA Finals the past three seasons.

Delonte West made it.

Ray Allen won it.

Rashard Lewis made it.

Instead of dousing LeBron in acid and burning his jersey, remember that it’s all because of him you guys are actually in a position to be angry in a first place.

Without him, you guys were nothing, you were not relevant, and would have not been as successful without him.

He gave you longer than the average NBA career of relevance, of being mentioned in the same sentence as “finals” on many occasions.

Can you really blame him?

Mo Williams, Antwan Jamison, Anderson Varejeo…

Or Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade, Mario Chalmers?

Really, quit whining, ever heard of Alex Rodriguez?

Yeah, that sell out left for the money, he didn’t leave to have a better chance to win a championship.

Ever heard of Ken Griffey Jr? Randy Johnson?

Sure they both wanted to go home, but we didn’t just have to watch our prize desert us, we had to watch three future Hall of Famers depart.

Ever heard of Ken Behring?

Yeah, we have been through the whole almost losing a team thing once before.

I mean, cursed? You F&cking kidding me? You think you’re cursed?

Cursed is when the referees cost you the Super Bowl. Cursed is when the only team that had ever won you a title gets taken away from you. Cursed is when your hot streak to the World Series gets ended by terrorists (if you don’t believe 9/11 cost the Mariners something, I implore you to consider the only reason the Rockies made the World Series was because of their historical hot streak). Cursed is having Bill Bavasi as your General Manager. Cursed is watching your former team beat the Lakers twice in the postseason.

Bottom line, you lost one player. Bottom line, LeBron has a better chance to win it all multiple times in Miami than he does in Cleveland, no debate about that at all.

Remember, you lost a player, not a team; at least when you lost a team last time, you got another.

We’re not likely to reciprocate that luck.