About Mike Ashmore

A versatile sports personality who has interviewed over 500 professional athletes from the four major sports, Ashmore got his start in 2003 working as a photographer for patriotsbaseball.com, with his photos occasionally accompanying Scott Stanchak's work in the Hunterdon County Democrat.

Towards the end of that season, Ashmore finally got to combine his two passions of sports and writing into one, doing the first of his now trademark Ten Questions interviews.

After positive reviews of the interviews, Stanchak and Ashmore realized that the demand was there for a site covering the Atlantic League, and they co-founded atlanticleaguebaseball.com before the 2004 season.  The site, under the direction of Ashmore and Stanchak, has grown into the largest of its kind, as well as the most trusted.

The site features nearly 200 interviews with former and current Atlantic League players and coaches; including pieces with future Hall of Fame outfielder Rickey Henderson, two-time American League MVP Juan Gonzalez and Cy Young Award Winner Sparky Lyle.

The 2004 season brought one of many firsts for Ashmore, as he started covering the Trenton Thunder as a photographer that year.  The Thunder, the Double-A affiliate to the New York Yankees, are one of the most prestigious minor league teams in the entire country.  Ashmore also had photographs published in New Jersey Monthly Magazine and even got to see one of his photos appear in the 2004 Somerset Patriots baseball card set.

In late December of 2004, Mike started work as a news correspondent on WDVR-FM's popular sports radio show, "The Cheap Seats with Scott Stanchak."

His tenure there lasted well into 2005, and many avenues were opened to Mike as a result of being a part of that show.  Not only did Ashmore and Stanchak team up to co-host the first ever Somerset Patriots radio preview, they also did the play-by-play and color commentary for Opening Day, which was also the first game in the history of the Lancaster Barnstormers.

Throughout that year, Mike was sent all across the Northeast, covering anything from Major League Baseball and the NBA to Arena Football and AHL hockey.  Going anywhere from Hartford to Philadelphia to Baltimore, Mike was fortunate enough to interview many superstar players; ranging from Allen Iverson to Marc-Andre Fleury and so on.

Having already been asked for information from such publications as The New York Times and Street & Smith's, and being credited for his work by the various teams in the Atlantic League and the papers that cover them, Ashmore's stock was on the rise.

On March 30, 2006, Ashmore was officially named as the new minor league sportswriter for the Hunterdon County Democrat.  Ashmore regularly covers the Somerset Patriots and Trenton Thunder for the paper and hopefully some other teams in the future.

2006 was another banner year for the young scribe, having contributed to Jayski.com - which is affiliated with ESPN.com and also the most popular NASCAR site on the planet.  In addition to covering the second no-hitter of his career, Ashmore was asked to write a feature by The New York Daily News on Erick Almonte.

His two-part series on the Road Warriors, including trying out for the team and spending a day with them on the road, was one of the most popular series of features in league history.

Fellow beat writers even took the time to write about Mike's experience, such as this article from The Nashua Telegraph.

In addition to interviewing three Hall of Famers in 2006, Ashmore talked to numerous players during their rehab assignments in Trenton; including Hideki Matsui, Robinson Cano, Carl Pavano and Octavio Dotel.

He also covered his first NFL game in October, watching the Giants beat the Redskins at Giants Stadium. After the game, Ashmore talked to Eli Manning, Tiki Barber, Michael Strahan and LaVar Arrington, among others.

Mike's photography career continued to flourish as well.  Along with the photos that accompanied his work in the Democrat, his photos could be found anywhere from the official Atlantic League website to hockeygoalies.org, not to mention the popular Deadspin.com

Ashmore made his long awaited return to the big leagues in 2007, covering seven New York Yankees games and one for the Washington Nationals.  He spoke to the likes of Derek Jeter, Mike Piazza, Johnny Damon, Justin Verlander, Gary Sheffield, Jorge Posada, Mike Mussina, C.C. Sabathia, Ivan Rodriguez, Mariano Rivera and Joe Torre...just to name a few.

2008 has already paid huge dividends, with his new Thunder Thoughts blog garnering national attention.  Ashmore will also have a feature appear in the Newark Bears yearbook, and has had a photo featured on the cover of the Caledon (ONT, CA) Enterprise.

At just 25 years of age, Ashmore has interviewed players from over 75 of the 122 current professional sports franchises.  He's talked to NASCAR Champions, Olympic gold medalists, first overall draft picks and players who've played in the World Series, NBA Finals, Super Bowl and Stanley Cup Finals.  But still, Ashmore is never satisfied and is always looking to take on new projects. 

If you need a sportswriter, you need Mike Ashmore.  It's that simple. 

Quick Hits

- Ashmore has interviewed players from all 30 current MLB teams, as well as the Milwaukee Braves, Montreal Expos and Washington Senators.

- Ashmore has covered baseball at five different levels (Independent, A, AA, AAA, MLB) as well as basketball (NBA), football (AFL, NFL) and hockey (AHL).  He's covered games in 16 different baseball stadiums alone and has now worked over 375 professional contests.

- Ashmore has interviewed more than 320 players with MLB experience, including 54 members of the Boston Red Sox -- including 2004 World Series Champions Johnny Damon and Trot Nixon.

- Ashmore has covered three separate championship teams (2003 Somerset Patriots, 2005 Somerset Patriots, 2007 Trenton Thunder)

- Ashmore has covered one cycle (Luis Rodriguez, 7/2/04) and two no-hitters (Joe Gannon, 8/17/04 and Lincoln Mikkelsen, 6/16/06)

- Ashmore has interviewed first overall draft picks from three different sports (Allen Iverson, Chris Webber, Marc-Andre Fleury, Eli Manning) as well as numerous first round picks from other sports.  He's also interviewed Hall of Fame pitchers Bob Gibson, Don Sutton and Jim Palmer, Hall of Fame outfielder Reggie Jackson, Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson and future Hall of Fame outfielder Rickey Henderson.

- Ashmore has interviewed players from the last fourteen World Series winning teams, including MVP's Bob Gibson, Brooks Robinson, Reggie Jackson, Derek Jeter and David Eckstein.

- Ashmore's bi-monthly "Affiliation Update" is linked on the Atlantic City Surf website.  The Bridgeport Bluefish website frequently mentioned Mike's work, and some of his news stories have been mentioned in such papers as The Nashua Telegraph, Connecticut Post, York Dispatch and The Lancaster New Era.  Furthermore, Mike's work has been talked about all over the internet, including nj.com, lohud.com and the popular baseball-reference.com

- Ashmore has occasionally filled in on WCTC to provide color commentary for Somerset Patriots radio broadcasts and has also filled that role and done play-by-play in 2005 for WDVR.

- Ashmore has been interviewed on the pre-game radio shows of the Trenton Thunder, Somerset Patriots and Atlantic City Surf.  He's also been a guest during a Newark Bears game, and has appeared on the Camden Riversharks radio preview show and other radio programs.

- Ashmore, ever the versatile sports personality, has had his photography featured on various websites and publications and has also produced numerous radio features as well.  Proving he's a valuable on-air talent as well, Mike made his acting debut on ISNN's Gadget Garage.