Happy Opening Day Eve to you! I am Howard Megdal, and The Journal News has seen fit to give me the keys to their LoHud.com Mets coverage, effective about 4:14 this afternoon (3:14 AM in Saigon). It is an honor that I don’t take likely, and I intend to inform all of you with every tool at my disposal. You can start by following this blog on Twitter @LoHudMets.
That is likely to vary by the day. I won’t be with the team at all times, like a beat reporter, but I’ll be sure to spend plenty of time with the Mets during every home stand and selected road trips. Sometimes, my take will be more humorous. I’ve written a poem recapping each of the 162 games, and if I could do that in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, I can certainly do it in 2011.
Other times, I’ll be employing statistical analysis. Some features, some minor league coverage, some historical pieces, some interviewing- I do a bit of each for other outlets, but I mean to make this blog a catch-all for each of these approaches. Things like daily lineups and a rehashing of what happened in each game- well, you can get that from the beat writers, who do a marvelous job reporting that information comprehensively and instantaneously, or chances are you already saw it by watching the game yourself.
My goal is to make sure every post adds something new to the discussion, whether small or large. If you want a rehashing of what links are already out there, you’d skip my blog and go right to Twitter. You may not always agree with me, but that’s okay- I may not always agree with you. (Sometimes this will happen at the exact same time.) But it would also be wonderful to hear from all of you about what I’m doing. Ideally, I’ll make the blog what you want to read as well, not just what I want to write. We’ll leave the post-modern approach to Thomas Pynchon’s Mets blog.
A bit about me, in case you don’t know my work: I currently write for a number of outlets, from ESPN.com to MLBTradeRumors.com, New York Baseball Digest to SB Nation New York. My first book, The Baseball Talmud, ranked every Jewish baseball player in MLB history. My new book, Taking the Field, will be released by Bloomsbury in May and chronicles my efforts to raise my daughter a Mets fan and get elected General Manager of the team.
I am extremely excited to begin this endeavor. In short, a baseball season is starting, and it is my job to reflect upon it with all of you. That never ceases to thrill me, no matter how the Mets finish in the standings.