I just wanted to take the time to welcome everyone to what will hopefully be a great source of information regarding the defending Eastern League champion Trenton Thunder.
My name is Mike Ashmore, and I’ll be entering my third season of covering the team as a writer for the Hunterdon County Democrat. I also cover the independent Atlantic League for the paper, specifically the Somerset Patriots.
I started out covering the Thunder as a photographer back in 2003, working the Hall of Fame Dinner in which Ken Macha and David Eckstein were inducted into the Trenton Baseball Hall of Fame. I then covered nine games in 2004 and 2005 in a similar role, and also started doing player interviews to supplement Scott Stanchak’s work — Stanchak covered the team for the paper from 2003 to 2005.
When Scott left to pursue bigger and better opportunities, I got the job and have covered the team ever since. I love what I do, and work hard to do the best job I can to bring people as close to the team as possible.
The Patriots, based on where my paper is located, are my primary beat. I still get to around 30 Thunder games a season, and usually aim for at least one game per series. It’s a weekly paper, so this isn’t a problem in terms of coverage in the paper…but I’ll do the best I can on keeping people informed on the days I’m not there as well.
Last season, I also had the great opportunity to cover six Yankees games, roughly one a month. I was fortunate enough to cover Matt DeSalvo’s first MLB start (you remember the one, where he was robbed of the win thanks to a blown call at second base) and Shelley Duncan’s first big league home run.
So hopefully this can continue this season, and I can continue to provide updates on Thunder alums making it big with the Yankees and other teams. I also plan on heading up to Scranton at least once this season as well.
Please feel free to contact me at any time via e-mail at mashmore98 AT gmail.com, and I’ll answer your questions as best as I can…and of course, you can always leave comments here as well.
Tags: David Eckstein, Ken Macha, New York Yankees, Trenton Thunder
