Jeff Miller column should be required reading for Halo fans

A lot of undeserved criticism for John Lackey. Miller nails it today in his column and takes a well deserved shot at the fans here.

8 months ago NewportHalo 33 comments 0 recs |

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Miller can't help being an idiot

He was fine with his basic premise (that calling Lackey a “traitor” is stupid), but he just isn’t bright enough to avoid being that which he criticizes. To wit, his description of Frankie Rodiguez being “coldly shoved out of Anaheim”.

The fact is that the team made a very lucrative offer to Frankie, which he turned down. It then showcased him and allowed him the opportunity to break the single-season saves record, even as it knew it wasn’t going to be paying his rate for his services after that season. Frankie even acknowledged that it was a business decision to go elsewhere and didn’t leave with any apparent hard feelings.

I guess it makes for a better column to invent events.

"He's not a Rhodes Scholar to begin with''~Theo Epstein, talking about Papelbon

by George Kaplan on Dec 16, 2009 10:32 PM PST reply actions

Sad Fact

Jeff Miller will get more readers from that link you just provided than he would without a link from this blog.

by Rev Halofan on Dec 16, 2009 10:37 PM PST reply actions

actually

newspaper readership is pretty high and the economic state of newspapers has nothing to do with people not reading what is written. Among my group of friends, we are much more likely to discuss a Simers column or send a link from a notes piece from the Times than we are a deadspin post. None of us subscribe to either the Times or Register but we all know what is written. We may be unique, but I doubt it.

by NewportHalo on Dec 16, 2009 11:54 PM PST up reply actions

you're becoming more and more unique each day

and if you really do live in Newport, they aren’t your friends.

The readers who look at the OCR for sports are looking for general sports and specific team coverage. Not a soul around is picking up that paper to read Jeff Miller.

by Rev Halofan on Dec 17, 2009 1:46 AM PST up reply actions

I agree

Nobody picks up the paper specifically for Jeff Miller. I have read less than 10 of his columns from 2009.

I pick up the Times specifically for Simers, Dufresne and Heisler. That doesn’t mean that I don’t catch a Plaschke column when it catches my eye.

I pick up the Register for the notes pieces on the Angels or USC and for Steve Fryer and the high school section. That doesn’t I don’t occasionally read Whicker or Miller.

Thanks for the tip about my friends. I’ll start looking for new ones. You want to meet for coffee tomorrow morning before work? I need to meet some “real” friends. Ha. I hit Kean coffee usually.

by NewportHalo on Dec 17, 2009 8:41 AM PST up reply actions

i hit

keen.com to tell me what to do every day

by Rev Halofan on Dec 17, 2009 1:23 PM PST up reply actions

never heard of keen.com

Interesting site. LOL.

You should check out Kean coffee. In Tustin and Newport started by Martin Deidrich

www.keancoffee.com

by NewportHalo on Dec 18, 2009 12:33 PM PST up reply actions

You're unique

More to the point, you’re emblematic of what is wrong with newspapers: Neither you nor your friends subscribe, yet you pick up the info (for free) online.

Until the newspapers find a way to monetize that content, they’re essentially providing a free service. The online ad content can’t possibly compensate for the lost revenue of ROP ads.

"He's not a Rhodes Scholar to begin with''~Theo Epstein, talking about Papelbon

by George Kaplan on Dec 17, 2009 3:36 AM PST up reply actions

Dare these venerable publications consider

that print-era hacks are the problem? How much print-era salary of Whicker and Jeff Miller could pull in three or four great sports bloggers?

by Rev Halofan on Dec 17, 2009 5:23 AM PST up reply actions

The problem is

great sports bloggers are few and far between. I’ve been impressed by the writing skills of Will Leitch at deadspin and the new editor AJ. I’ve also read some good stuff at a couple other blogs but for the most part the writing is not up to par.

by NewportHalo on Dec 18, 2009 12:35 PM PST up reply actions

so what you're implying

is that since YOU and your neat Newport buddies discuss the high-brow classics of the OC Register and TJ Simers that everyone else does? How old are you?

I read blogs because people write to write, not to shamelessly whore their credibility to get a spike in readership. This column was no different than your run of the mill shock-jock on the radio who solely aims to provoke.

I do not read Jeff Miller because his articles are pathetic, not because he writes for a newspaper. Sadly these papers are full of dinosaurs like Miller who would rather use their space to take cheap shots at blogs (ie: the reason he’ll be out of a job in a year) instead of proving why newspapers should actually be around. Miller contributes to his own demise.

RIP Nick Adenhart

by ihearhowie2.0 on Dec 17, 2009 11:28 AM PST up reply actions

huh?

I’m just providing anecdotal evidence of our reading habits and there is statistical evidence to back up that newspapers are still highly read. The newspaper industry screwed up their financial structure in the late 90s and they are paying for it now.

I didn’t imply anything in the Times or Register was “high-brow classics” but on the whole the analysis and writing is better than on the blogs.

by NewportHalo on Dec 18, 2009 12:41 PM PST up reply actions

If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it...

RIP Nick Adenhart

by ihearhowie2.0 on Dec 16, 2009 11:26 PM PST reply actions

Isn't this the guy who

said the A’s would win the AL west last season….I think Miller is the IDIOT

by jb1031 on Dec 17, 2009 12:13 AM PST reply actions

Agreed

Except I doubt anyone could have predicted Oakland to suck as hard as they did. I thought they were going to really give the Angels a run for their money.

I miss Hudler already.

by Teixeira Who? on Dec 17, 2009 2:01 AM PST up reply actions

i didn’t.

by Rev Halofan on Dec 17, 2009 5:24 AM PST up reply actions

bad predictions

does not make a column invalid. Local writers also tend to pick against the local team to avoid appearing to be homers in my experience.

by NewportHalo on Dec 17, 2009 8:34 AM PST up reply actions

how many local newspapers do you get

in your experience?

RIP Nick Adenhart

by ihearhowie2.0 on Dec 17, 2009 11:20 AM PST up reply actions

good Q

I usually check out the Times, Register and Daily Pilot.

In a given week I’ll check out azcentral.com for stuff on Phoenix and the mercury news and San Fran Chronical for stuff on the bay area teams. Local columnists all over have an adversarial relationship with fans. There is Dan Bickley in Phoenix, Simers here, Kawakami at the mercury news. I don’t read Ray Ratto enough to know his schtick. There was a guy in San Diego for Union Trib that is pretty critical of local teams. Nick Canapa or something like that. Not sure if he is still there.

by NewportHalo on Dec 18, 2009 12:49 PM PST up reply actions

It wasn't the predictions that made the column horrible, it was the column

by mattwelch on Dec 17, 2009 2:18 PM PST up reply actions

well to be honest

I didn’t read the column, so it may have been poorly constructed.

by NewportHalo on Dec 18, 2009 12:42 PM PST up reply actions

It must burn up Sam Miller to know that people occasionally confuse him for Jeff

by mattwelch on Dec 17, 2009 5:54 AM PST reply actions

Old media does not allow psudonyms

Then Whicker is in the OCR Angels blog (weirdly often reporting Dodgers news because he bleeds D-Blue) mocking people with pseudonyms on the internet while opening it up to comments from people with… you guessed it… internet pseudonyms.

What a travesty … and yet … what a stereotype of old media being unable to adapt conceptually even when they adapt physically to the new medium.

Thanks god for Sam Miller. They oughtta give a medal to the guy who got him his job.

by Rev Halofan on Dec 17, 2009 1:27 PM PST up reply actions

The universe of MSM types who can write knowledgeably about the Angels is very small

Hence, my prediction is that Sam Miller will be hired away by someone who actually values such things within the next six months.

by mattwelch on Dec 17, 2009 2:20 PM PST up reply actions

Nah. The MSM is all OMG!!! Y4nK33Z!!!!!!! B05ux!!!!!!!!

Angels baseball. We do what we must, because we can -- HaloDutch

by red floyd on Dec 17, 2009 3:09 PM PST up reply actions

Not exclusively

Yahoo decided to get serious about covering baseball a few years back, so hired Tim Brown. ESPN L.A. is debuting (I think) next week, and it will have an appetite for quality.

by mattwelch on Dec 18, 2009 12:29 PM PST up reply actions

yes ESPN LA launches Dec 21

will be interesting to see if they take hold. I heard they weren’t doing well in Boston or Chicago but that was second hand and there are obviously stats that could determine their success.

by NewportHalo on Dec 18, 2009 12:52 PM PST up reply actions

So is porn the first language of the Internet?

Quoted from the article:

“Calling Lackey a traitor is juvenile and comical, which explains why most of this nonsense is unfolding on the Internet, a place where farting is considered a second language.”

by XYZ123 on Dec 17, 2009 11:13 AM PST reply actions