In 1968, at the age of 11, I became a big baseball fan, as just about every Detroiter did, while the Tigers helped unite a racially torn city on its march to the World Championship. That summer I consumed every printed word I could find about baseball.

That’s when I first got the journalism itch. I went on to work for my high school and college newspapers and majored in journalism at the University of Michigan. After graduation I worked for Gannett newspapers in Vermont, Florida and Ohio before landing at USA TODAY in the Washington, D.C., area, taking a dream job at a publication focused strictly on baseball: Baseball Weekly. In 2000 I faced a tough decision – continue on at Baseball Weekly or move into the emerging digital world as sports editor of USATODAY.com.

I chose the latter, gaining the opportunity to cover Super Bowls and Olympics while learning how to reach audiences on a whole new platform. Now at Transport Topics, I am able to apply those four decades of print and digital skills as Managing Editor/Multiplatform, overseeing editors who bob seamlessly between both worlds, bringing cleanly edited, well-packaged trucking news to consumers of Transport Topics and TTNews.com.

“The windup… and the pitch… he swings… a line drive! Base hit! Right field! The Tigers win it! Here comes Kaline to score! And it’s all over! Don Wert singles! The Tigers mob Don… Kaline has scored… the fans are streaming on the field… and the Tigers have won their first pennant since 1945. Let’s listen to the bedlam, here at Tiger Stadium!”— Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell, Sept. 17, 1968.