As a freshman in high school, Bryan Hoch was passionate about baseball — and intrigued about this fledgling technology thing called the internet. It wasn’t long before Hoch married his writing skills — HTML code and baseball — and created a online home for New York Mets fans.
“I remember thinking that the writers in the press box couldn’t possibly see the game the same way I did from my $5 seat in the upper deck,” Hoch told Metsmerized Online in 2010.
MetsOnline.net was born, three years before Mets.com was launched. The website quickly became a source on news and community for fans across the country. “It grew not because of me, but because the Mets fan base was so devoted and thirsty for any kind of outlet like that, and it really did take on its own life,” said Hoch.
The attention led to an internship with the Mets in 2000. But then, two years later, in 2002, Hoch received a formal “cease and desist” letter from MLB Properties. The site was shut down due to copyright concerns.
Hoch said, at the time, the decision was a “gut punch.” In hindsight, it was a turning point for Hoch’s career. He went on to write for Fox Sports and was editor-in-chief of Mets Inside Pitch magazine. In 2007, he was named beat reporter for the New York Yankees, where he’s spent the last 13 years.
Hoch joins the Mets Rewind podcast to talk about his time with the early days reporting on the internet, his transition from the Mets to the Yankees and reporting in today’s media culture.
Bryan Hoch Books:
