Happy Anniversary To Us!

It was on this day four years ago that David and I made our quiet, understated entrance into the Marlins blogging world. It's a Marlins blog, how else would it go? The first day included the inaugural post, our Mission Statement¹, and the first installment of Children of the Marlins Diaspora.

It actually started the Christmas period before that March of 2009. Dave approached me with the idea of starting a Marlins blog. This was long before Dave started writing for NBCMiami and more. At the time he wrote a jazz blog, which still sees sporadic entries today, but he wanted to take his sharp wit to the sports world.

I was a bit cynical and needed some convincing. I had dipped my toe into sports blogging, half-heartedly penning a Dolphins blog since 2007. The work was about as bad as the Dolphins themselves but it was a fun exercise. This was before Twitter and microblogging really took off so it was tough to get any sort of readership or activity on the site. I guess my initial thoughts about creating a blog about another not-that-great Miami franchise were "what for?"

Dave painted the picture that the blog would be more for us. We regularly texted, emailed and G-chatted each other jokes and opinions about the craziness of the Marlins and being a fan of that team. The blog would basically be a platform to amuse ourselves. If people started reading and interacting with it/us, that would be a bonus. We discussed the Mission Statement and trying to carve out a niche. It was convincing enough that I agreed.

I won't bore you with a complete history but we plodded along (on the terrific http://losmarlins.blogspot.com URL which still redirects properly) and have come a long way since 2009. It's fun to go back and look at the posts from the first month or year, not only to laugh at our dearth of quality of writing, but to see what was going on in Marlins land, including

• Stadium deal nearly falling through (Part 364839)
• Predicting Cameron Maybin wasn't long for a Marlins uniform (Nailed that one)
• Mets Schadenfreude (knows no beginning or end)

The team has undergone massive changes over the last four years but we try to keep the task the same (while slowly adding improvements like a dedicated domain name, amateur graphics, etc.) and stick to the outlines of the Mission Statement. Obviously the team outlook is pretty bleak this year, but that usually means better blogging material so Dave and I are pretty excited for this calamity of a season to begin. We'll ramp up pretty soon with previews and such and may have a couple new things in store.

If you're in a giving mood and feel so inclined, the traditional fourth anniversary gift is Fruit/Flowers. You can send those to Dave. The modern day guide says to gift appliances. I'll gladly except a blender or a Super-Bass-O-Matic 76.

:raises fist and says "Go Marlins" :feels forced

¹We back-dated the Mission Statement, along with a couple other important posts.