About: Matthew Cerrone

The first Mets game I remember was in 1984, when I was nine years old.  The majority of my family liked the Yankees.  So, in an effort to be different, I picked the Mets, and I immediately took to Darryl Strawberry and Doc Gooden, who were young, exciting, a bit brash and powerful.

The 1986 Mets were successful and dominant, and unique to me, and, even though they were the best team in baseball, the 175–game marathon was an emotional roller coaster.  I skipped school for the first time ever, unknown to my parents, to be home in time to watch Game 5 of the NLCS.  In Game 6 of the World Series, and the Mets on the verge of losing, my mom said, ‘It’s over, turn it off.’  I refused, believing the Mets could turn it around.  In that moment, I learned a key lesson in life, as well as a core value of being a Mets fan, ‘Ya Gotta Believe,’ and it hooked me on baseball and the team for life.  There was no turning back.

In 2003, I moved to Washington, DC, with my girlfriend, who is now my wife, and I started MetsBlog.com as a project in college, because, as an out-of-market fan, I could not watch the games on TV, I missed listening to WFAN, and I had no Mets fans to talk with about the team; I continued to write the blog as a hobby; and made it my full-time job in 2006.

In six years of blogging, I turned MetsBlog.com from five page views per month to five million page views per month, which it logged in December 2009.

In that time, I have learned through experience how best to build an online brand and audience, and keep both growing; how to turn a hobby in to a job; how to best leverage new media tools, partnerships and online relationships; and, as a fan, I now understand the most effective ways to communicate with teams, athletes and reporters, all of whom tend to be quite skeptical of ‘bloggers.’

In 2007, I partnered with SNY, the TV home of the Mets, to help develop more in-depth content for MetsBlog.com, while working to create team-specific blogs and digital projects for their website, SNY.TV, with whom I was nominated for two New York Emmy Awards in 2008.

During my time writing MetsBlog.com, I have been interviewed about the Mets and my work in digital media on radio, including WFAN, ESPN, and on countless other stations across the country; and on television, including SNY, ESPN News, WNBC and WPIX, among others; while being quoted in several print publications, including The New York Times, New York Daily News, Newsday, Sports Illustrated and on ESPN.com.

To book me for an interview or speaking engagement, be it to talk about the Mets or my experience in sports blogging, new media and turning an online hobby in to a job, contact me here.

To read a report from Neil Best in Newsday, regarding me and MetsBlog from 2007, click here.

To see a video from SNY about my Yankees-fan wife and I, attending the Mets-Yankees game before our wedding, click here.