Comments on: Interview With MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch (Mets Online)

By: Ken Gale

Ken Gale — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:50:51 +0000

I actually stopped listening to and watching Mets games every day when they shut down metsonline. It was just less fun to not know what I used to learn from metsonline and my enthusiasm diminished a helluva lot. It took me a couple of years to get my interest back. It’s not something I thought about at the time, but that’s what happened.

By: Lisa P.

Lisa P. — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 04:00:12 +0000

This is so cool, and I’m enjoying the comments as much as the interview. I was so blown away when they shut Bryan’s site. At the time it seemed like the biggest story on the web. We were all saddened and angry at MLB. I am happy that things are now going so good for you Bryan. Your hard work and dilligence has paid off. You earned every bit of your success!

By: Devin

Devin — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:44:00 +0000

That’s hilarious!!!

By: Bryan Hoch

Bryan Hoch — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:35:59 +0000

Gary was, and is, a terrific guy — and truly one of the best play-by-play announcers in baseball. It was great actually getting to know him a little better in the years that followed. I don’t remember any run-in with Fran but I will share a quick story about him…

One year (might have been ’98) I had an assignment to write a letter to someone famous and see if he/she would come in to class to talk about their career. Out of all the people in the world, and I guess as something of a goof, I picked Fran and mailed him something through FOX Sports Net. I figured if he came, he could talk about the Mets and also some of his old tales from the Reggie Jackson-era Yankees, both of which I’d like to hear.

One day, my little brother came into my room, saying, “Um, Fran Healy is on the phone for you.” Fran declined the invite, but we had a very nice chat for five or 10 minutes. There’s no way he remembers it (and I think I later asked him if he did), but I sure do.

By: Bayonne Mets Fan

Bayonne Mets Fan — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:30:23 +0000

Rumor Mill was my favorite. I remember you and Jon Weisman had a sit down interview with Gary Cohen and you or Jon writing how friendly he was. I think Fran Healy had brushed you guys off? lol. The photos you posted of your road trips come to mind too.

By: Devin

Devin — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:26:33 +0000

Excellent post! This brought back some awesome memories for me. I recall the Ventura grand slam single game kept crashing the site that night. Every Met fan on the web all headed to metsonline.net! Those were good times.

By: Dykstra

Dykstra — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:11:20 +0000

Definitely not, but I might consider it now, lol

By: Bryan Hoch

Bryan Hoch — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:09:24 +0000

You mean you don’t read Yankees.com every day?

By: Dykstra

Dykstra — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:08:35 +0000

Dude!!! Are you really writing for the Yankees?? Its so great to hear from you, I had no idea what happened to you after Always Amazin. The Mets blogosphere misses you!

By: Bryan Hoch

Bryan Hoch — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:01:43 +0000

Thanks so much. I really can’t believe you guys have such vivid memories of a site that was online 8-14 years ago!! Here’s a trivia question no one probably knows but me — the original web site had a wood-paneled background and two baseball cards at the masthead. Those cards? Tom Seaver and (yes) Jeff Kent.

By: Bayonne Mets Fan

Bayonne Mets Fan — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 02:51:50 +0000

Hi Bryan,

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank you for such an amazing site. The early days of the internet were magical. Long before pop-ups, viral marketing, advertisements, and flash animation there was simple personal websites, free baseball games on RealPlayer and all kinds of cool unregulated things in this new frontier. I remember Mets Online fondly as one of the first sites i visited regularly on my old black Compaq Presario v2000 in those days back in 1996. It’s funny you had a Compaq too! Mine lasted until December of 2003! I just recently purchased the latest 21.5 inch iMac so times have changed.

By: Metnix1

Metnix1 — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 02:42:20 +0000

The amazing thing is that the Mets Online Forum (The MOFO) still exists, with many of the same posters. Joe McDonald did a great job keeping that community alive, even though everything else around it changed. http://www.nysportsday.com/themofo2/

By: Hoovbacca

Hoovbacca — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 02:39:46 +0000

We had Bryan on our Blogtalk Radio show a few weeks back to talk about many of the same things. Pure class, he is. It was great to catch up with him, for years after the site was closed i would find myself typing “metsonline.net” and even recently was looking at a few remnants of it still available at archive.org. It definitely is the reason i am personally involved in the mets online community. All of these sites, like mine, like Matthew Cerrone’s, like this one, all owe a lot to the “grandaddy”, if you will, Bryan Hoch. He deserves every bit of success he has achieved, and heck, he even manages to make reading about the Yankees interesting, now THAT takes talent! LOL. I am glad he not only continues to get appreciation for his past, but equally glad that Mets fans online either remember his impact, or if they have come later, understand the doors he opened for the rest of us.

Keep up the great work, love the site!

jb
thehappyrecap.com

By: Frankie

Frankie — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 02:01:04 +0000

What a great guy. I still cant believe they shut him down.

By: The Stache

The Stache — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:13:51 +0000

Great interview Joe! The only thing I ever used my first computer for was to checkout Mets Online. That and playing Tony LaRusa baseball, lol. Life was much simpler back then.

By: Original Met Fan

Original Met Fan — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:51:33 +0000

You ran a great site Bryan. Thank you for all the hard work and dedication. You were a class act all the way.

By: Bryan Hoch

Bryan Hoch — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:12:51 +0000

Thanks guys, that was fun. As for the Compaq Presario – I had one too! It was this big bulky all-in-one unit (here’s a pic: http://forum.wda-fr.org/images/uploads/Mr_T/Compaq0_110.jpg). I didn’t get a laptop until years later, and actually brought this thing on family vacations. Imagine me on a summer Florida day, lugging this thing up the hotel steps from the car to make sure the site stayed updated!

By: Nester

Nester — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:54:34 +0000

1999 and 2000 were exciting Mets seasons that were enhanced by the coverage on Metsonline.net. Bryan was a guy ahead of his time.

By: Maverick

Maverick — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:38:42 +0000

Whatever happened to Jonathan Weisman, who was Bryan Hoch’s sidekick on that website.

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Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:11:42 +0000

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