roger's profile

roger
961
Name: Roger Devine
Location: Portland Oregon
Member since: November 13, 2003
Last visit: February 14, 2004

roger has posted 0 links and 6 comments to SportsFilter and 0 links and 0 comments to the Locker Room.

Sports Bio


Big Yankee fan. Held season tix from 1994-2001. Saw a lot of WS games. Now I live in a city that is ambivalent about its Big Chance to land an MLB team.

Used to edit sports books once upon a time. Worked with Al Silverman, who is still a hero of mine.

Recent Comments

A long time ago, I was an associate editor at a NY publishing house. I was one of two editors with an interest in sports, and publishing sports books. As such, I have met my share of sports figures, but mostly in a context that doesn't fit here. But I do want to say that Jeff Hostetler has to have been the biggest freakin' full-of-himself dork who ever presented himself to me. He's coming to a meeting with his agent, to convince us to sign up his book, and he brings signed glossies with him to the office. Really, Jeff, that's okay. We're not here for the autographs.

posted by roger at 04:09 PM on November 21, 2003

Goddam Brewers.

Christ. There's such incompetence on display here. Put aside, for a moment, the on-field product. The club's government relations, media relations, and management hierarchy is so messed up that it should be enough to land them in hot water. Selig may well have a strategic reason for wanting his team to appear to be losing money. I can't imagine a reason why he would want it to look like he is incompetent.

posted by roger at 04:59 PM on November 20, 2003

Two follow-ups. Not to beat a dead horse (well, okay, I LIKE beating dead horses sometimes, and this is one of those), but: (a) The "P" in MVP signifies that it is an individual award, not a team award (b) "Wins" are a team statistic. (Okay, there is also a different statistic with the same name that is an individual stat for pitchers, but no one here should be confused) Building the foundation of an individual award on a team statistic is questionable, at best. Secondly, I know the Jayson Stark argument, but I don't buy it. At the end of the season, what counts is a win-loss record. Not individual monthly win-loss records. Despite the addle-brained mediot thinking on this, a win in July is every bit as valuable as a win in April.

posted by roger at 01:11 PM on November 18, 2003

What can a player do to be "valuable", anyway? My answer would be: help win games. How can they help win games? get on base, move around the bases, score runs, help teammates score runs, help prevent runs. A-Rod does all of these things superbly. Why one earth would his ability to do these things somehow lose their value simply because no one on his team can pitch?

posted by roger at 06:49 PM on November 17, 2003

Darryl Strawberry gets one more chance.

How to game the steroid tests?

posted by roger at 11:50 AM on November 14, 2003

Now with 5-7% real juice!

There never was any such asterisk, vito. It was a suggestion by Frick (Ruth's friend and biographer before he became commissioner), but was never enacted. Because, of course, the Commissioner of Baseball has no authority whatsoever over Macmillan or any subsequent publisher of "the record book". MLB as an organization has never published such a thing.

posted by roger at 11:49 AM on November 14, 2003