Steve with Ian MacKaye during a break during the Follow Fashion Monkeys sessions.
- Steve loved numbered lists.
- He was a good dresser. He always wore shirts with patterns, and often with snaps.
- He also recognized the dress of others, pointing out a drummer or bass player who had made a good or bad or interesting choice in a video.
- He and I invented the Fantasy Baseball Guide together. Steve was working for Rotowire, my partner in the Guides for a couple of years, and they gifted me with an excellent collaborator. Having a cool and smart partner on the payroll was a beautiful thing for me, and gaining a friend was even more important.
- Steve always had ideas, about everything. And his resistance to seeing the middle ground was sometimes frustrating, but often also endearing, which is why everyone ended up giving him a lot of space to be himself. His ideas were passionate and heart-felt and often right. Or valuable, even if you disagreed. Or when he was wrong.
- He was more punk than the rest of us. He said so.
- When we put together our Essential lists, at the start of Rock Remnants, there was no more surprising item on any list than Steve’s choice of More Specials.
- Steve always said the Guide was the best baseball mag out there. Who doesn’t like that?
- There were always surprising things about him that would come out in conversation. Like, I’m dating a minister. Or, My country band does [that song] this way…. Or, when I’m at the gym I have to listen to this crap. As if he didn’t know he had other choices to listen to what he wanted. But he did not take to the streaming world. To someone who has driven through Times Square listing to Supershit 666 at maximum volume with Steve, on DVD, these seem like oxymorons. Who is this person who contains such multitudes?
- And who gets pissed off when the music isn’t pushing it enough. Even when it is folk music, and it really shouldn’t.
- Steve suggested we include a broad range of fantasy voices in the Guide, and helped me to draw those voices in. I’d always been shy about the fantasy industry, a phrase that is particularly ludicrous on Oscar night, but Steve in real and important ways introduced me to people I already knew from LABR and Tout, and helped forge friendships with them that have become a central part of my life. I’m not sure why I didn’t think of that, but with Steve’s help I did.
- Steve named Rock Remnants. It was his name. And when my implementation of his name wasn’t to his liking, he was fierce in his defense of his vision. That led to some uncomfortable moments, and we all know what happens to muscle that is challenged.
- The perfect tribute would be to burn a CD of cuts Steve loved. A mix tape on CD. Because Moyer didn’t stream. In the meantime, how about this song from The Upper Crust:
Beautifully said, Peter.
Boy he did love numbered lists. And I love “He was more punk than the rest of us. He said so.”
Steve and I were friends for many years. We attended church camp together since 1988 save for one year while I was in Germany. He was a guest in my house. He was an avid baseball fan and an authority in baseball. His passing is a shock to all who knew him. It is so sad for Harmony, Mary Lou, Tony, and Neil, and Sylvia. Rest in peace my friend.
This is Samantha, the minister Steve was dating. We got engaged on New Year’s Eve 2017. I can’t imagine how I’m going to get through the rest of my life without him. But it does me good to hear all the good things people say. He was truly one of a kind.
So sorry for your loss Samantha. He was so great to be in a band with. I will never forget him.
Thanks Bill.
I wasn’t close with Steve, but he was one of the smartest and wittiest people I have ever met. He was very kind to me when I was starting out in fantasy baseball and encouraged me to stand out and express my brash opinions instead of just trying to fit in with the crowd and suck up to the “right” people. I ran into him a couple of times at Iron Pigs games after I moved to Bucks County and his love for the game was so wonderful and pure. We felt his absence in Arizona and will again in New York City later this month when we congregate to do this silly, fun thing that he loved so much.