February 17, 2007

Welcome to the MikeAshmore.com blog!

I wanted to keep everyone posted as to what I'm up to in the off-season, as well as what stories you can expect to see throughout the upcoming season in the Hunterdon County Democrat and on atlanticleaguebaseball.com

I also expect to be able to make an announcement here and on MikeAshmore.com regarding some new ventures I'll be working on.

As for what I'm working on now, a story on Flemington native Jack Cust is taking up my time.

I have a Monday deadline to get this story done, and I realistically only have about 25% of what I need to get this one hammered out. I am, however, expecting to hear from Grady Fuson, the Minor League Director of the San Diego Padres, within the next 24 hours.

Getting the Padres perspective on Cust's position in their organization is critical to the success of my story, so pulling that off was big.

It was also surprising (to an extent) how easy it was to get the help I needed from Warren Miller, head of the Padres PR department. He was very willing to help me out once I explained Cust being a local player and the angle of my story. Considering the crap I have to deal with in my regular beats at times, it was refreshing to see how easy things can be at the highest level.

Cust making the Padres would be great not only for him, but for me as well. I'm fairly certain I could go to Philadelphia or New York and cover a Padres game to do a follow-up on this story, which (hopefully) will run on February 22nd in the Democrat.