About Bryan Hoch
I would have to say that generationally I was very lucky to come along when I did, because without the Internet, IâÂÂm pretty sure I wouldnâÂÂt be covering the Yankees right now. I knew in my early teen years that I wanted to be involved with baseball. I can remember racing to the mailbox to flip through each weekâÂÂs issue of Sports Illustrated, skipping right to the baseball pages, and I also had subscriptions to Baseball Weekly and Baseball Digest littering the floor of my bedroom.
Having the Internet available at that age allowed me to try my hand at not just reading, but also writing about the game I loved. All of that writing helped me get my name out there to some extent in the late 1990s, and the Mets offered me an unpaid internship to help them out with Mets.com for the second half of the 2000 season. Quite literally, I went from my high school graduation to sitting in the press box at Shea Stadium in the matter of a week, so I actually wound up being in the press box for both of the Yankeesâ World Series wins in the 2000s.
As I entered college, I knew that journalism was something I wanted to pursue and studied along that career path, actually staying close to home and commuting to school, because I figured I had managed to get a foot in the door. I could never be sure that door would open again if I let it close. So I continued writing and covering baseball as much as possible during those years, both online and freelancing for a number of publications. I remember being really excited when I was assigned to write a freelance cover story on Mike Piazza for New York Mets Inside Pitch, the team newspaper that I would become the managing editor of in just a few short years (though I couldnâÂÂt have imagined that at the time!).
Around those years, while I was still trying to piece things together, I drove down to the Metsâ Spring Training complex in Port St. Lucie, Fla. on my own dime and eventually heard that MLB.com might be able to use some freelance help that season out at Shea Stadium. Needless to say, that was an opportunity I jumped at, and I spent the next three years covering the Mets and the road teams at Shea on a semi-regular basis alongside Kevin Czerwinski and Marty Noble.
Somewhere along the line, I also started getting assignments across town at Yankee Stadium, and I absolutely loved being able to broaden my workload while interacting with new people and a new team, and got to be there for some great events including Roger Clemens' 300th victory against the Cardinals.
While I was covering the âÂÂ06 Winter Meetings for MLB.com, there were rumblings that the Yankees beat might be opening up for âÂÂ07, and I made sure to tell the right people that I would definitely be interested in being considered. Needless to say, something went right. The last three years with the Yankees have been an absolutely wonderful experience, and truly life-changing for me.
You can e-mail Bryan at bryan.hoch@mlb.com and read his Twitter updates at: http://www.twitter.com/bryanhoch.
