Daniel Okrent

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Daniel Okrent (born April 2, 1948) is an American writer and editor. He is best known for having served as the first public editor of The New York Times newspaper, and for inventing Rotisserie League Baseball.

Daniel Okrent graduated from Cass Technical High School in Detroit and from the University of Michigan. Most of his career has been spent as an editor, at such places as Alfred A. Knopf; Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich; Esquire Magazine; New England Monthly; Life Magazine; and TIME, Inc.

Okrent invented Rotisserie League Baseball, the best-known form of fantasy baseball, in 1979. The name comes from the fact that he pitched the idea to his friends while dining at La Rôtisserie Française restaurant in New York City. Okrent's team in the Rotisserie League was called the "Okrent Fenokees", a pun on the Okefenokee Swamp. He was one of the first two people inducted into the Fantasy Sports Hall of Fame. He was still playing Rotisserie as of 2007 under the team name Dan Druffs.

In 1994, Okrent was filmed for his in-depth knowledge of baseball history for the Ken Burns' documentary Baseball. During the nine-part series, a red sweater-wearing Okrent delivered a cold, coherent, serious though sometimes pedantic analysis of the cultural aspects of the national pastime, including a comparison between the dramatic Game 6 of the 1975 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds to the conflict and character development in Russian novels. His book Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center (Viking, 2003) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in history.

In October 2003, Okrent was named public editor for The New York Times, serving much of the same function as an ombudsman. He held this position until May 2005. He is known for coining "Okrent's Law" during his tenure as a comment he made about his new job. It states: "The pursuit of balance can create imbalance because sometimes something is true," referring to the phenomenon of the press providing legitimacy to fringe or minority viewpoints.

[edit] Bibliography

  • The Ultimate Baseball Book (1979)
  • Nine Innings: The Anatomy of Baseball as Seen Through the Playing of a Single Game (1985)
  • The Way We Were: New England Then, New England Now (1988)
  • Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center (2003)
  • Public Editor #1 (2006)

[edit] Filmography


Media offices
New title Public Editor for The New York Times
2003-2005		 Succeeded by
Byron Calame

[edit] External links