Podcast: The Birth of Legends On Deck

Tuesday night, Legends on Deck co-founder David Conde made an appearance on “The Hardway Podcast“, which is owned and operated by our very own Jon Harder, to talk about everything from his beginnings as a writer, to the opportunities of meeting minor league ballplayers, to meeting yours truly, and of course this site.  You can hear the interview in its entirety by clicking the link below.

I had the chance to listen to this on Wednesday and it got me excited to be a part of this site all over again.  I have had the privilege of knowing David for a couple of years now and the one thing that always stood out was his passion for the game.  It has been evident in our phone conversations, his writing, his work ethic, and now this podcast.  The excitement you hear in his voice is very heartfelt and genuine and that hasn’t wavered.  Listening to it also brought me back all the way to my beginning.

My interest in writing started about 10 years ago.  I was reading the local paper and was just annoyed with the lack of coverage of the teams we were getting in the area.  I thought that I could do a better job giving the teams what I felt they deserved, so I started my own site dedicated to them.  I felt I could write a little bit so I gave it a shot.  I reached out to several of the teams letting them know what I was thinking of doing and sought out information on how to become part of the press.

I was pretty amazed on the information I was provided and to make a long story short, I was granted full season access to our Single-A Short Season team, as well as our American Hockey League team, and two Semi-Pro football teams.  That is when my love affair with writing about sports started.  I had the honor of doing it from 2006 to 2008 when I shut the site down.

Fast forward to 2013-ish and my introduction to MetsMerizedOnline.com (MMO).  MMO was a site that is dedicated to the New York Mets that has a tremendous following and such quality content.  After a month or so of reading and thinking, I decided to throw my hat back into the ring and pursue the whole sports writing thing again.  I reached out to MMO’s owner expressing my interest in possibly joining his site.  Within a day or so I heard back and I provided him a couple of samples and was offered an opportunity to write for him.  It was a tremendous experience and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

One thing that I always loved, from my time writing for myself, was the minor leagues.  I had found out that MMO had a sister site dedicated to the Mets minor league teams and they were looking for a bit of help with recaps and features.  The site was being run by David.

I remember our early dialogue and I felt that his passion and my level of interest were very similar.  We continued working on that site for a bit, but I felt that there was more to do.  I love the minor leagues and I love the stories of all the players and the hard work they put in.  What was lost was the inability to continue following and writing about these guys once they left the Mets organization. That is when the idea of covering all aspects of the minor leagues started.

Legends on Deck was essentially born after many conversations between David and I.  It really wasn’t something we intended on starting, but as you will hear in the podcast with a little push from his wife we decided to give it a shot.

In its almost three years, so much has happened.  Staff has come and gone (me included, but I came back), doors that we thought were years away from being opened were opened, friendships were formed, and so much groundwork was laid down to bring the site to where it is today.  There is still plenty of work to do and I can assure you we are on it.  We have introduced so many different and exciting features that are sure to be a hit.

I won’t give away everything, you will have to listen and keep checking back. We appreciate all of your support and look forward to providing you all with continued coverage of the minor leagues and especially the players.