Benjamin Hochman can’t wait to get started in St. Louis, where he will bring a new perspective, which weaves commentary and humor, to the Post-Dispatch and STLtoday.com. And that’s no joking matter.
Hochman, a jovial Clayton High grad who likes to dabble in stand-up comedy, is eager to get going as he takes over for former sports columnist Bernie Miklasz.
“I’m stupidly fired up,” he said. “I’ve been sitting around coming up with column ideas.”
Hochman, who had been a sports columnist at the Denver Post after being a beat writer there, will start here on Monday. His first column tentatively is set to appear Sept. 3.
“Coming in to write about St. Louis sports in September 2015, with the Rams in flux and the Cardinals with the best record in baseball and Mizzou in the (college football) Top 25 and the Blues jumping into what could be a historic season, I’m a lucky man,” he said. “Then there’s Jayson Tatum,” the Chaminade basketball player who has committed to Duke, to write about this winter. “This (job) is something I’ve always wanted to do.It’s actually happening. I can’t wait to jump in.”
He’s leaping into an opening created by the departure of Miklasz. But it’s not as if Hochman was eager to flee Colorado, where he had settled in to a comfortable role.
“I adore Denver, by no means was I looking to leave,” he said. “I love the Denver Post, we have a very good sports section. But my dream job opened up … If it had been another city, I might have said, ‘Thank you, but no thank you.’ But for St. Louis, I had to take the call. I had to see this through.”
Post-Dispatch sports editor Roger Hensley said it quickly became evident Hochman stood out.
“When the position first opened up, I had multiple employees tell me, ‘You should check this guy out’ or ‘You should go get him, he’s great,’” Hensley said. “So it helped that I had people on staff that already knew and respected Benjamin. After that I read a lot of his work and could see he had a distinctive style with an articulate and authoritative voice. And once I got him in town for an interview it was obvious he was the right guy for the job. He fits here. He gets it. And I know he’s going to fit in great with all of the other excellent writers we have on staff.”
Hochman is versatile, with his résumé including writing, video, radio and comedy.
“In the newspaper business we are constantly trying to figure out what does the modern reporter and columnist need to do in this day and age to make a mark,” said Dan Petty, the Denver Post’s digital director of sports. “Having a distinct voice is the most important thing. The next thing is how do you get that voice to carry and what do you do to showcase that voice. For Ben, it was always a combination of things. … His willingness to do anything I asked was exceptional. If he could find a way to make it happen, he would.“He was always somebody I could rely on. … somebody who is just as comfortable being on camera as he is writing, telling great stories. I always felt his best work and his strongest work was telling great stories, finding people, and getting them to open up to him.”
HEADING HOME
Hochman, 35, hasn’t lived in St. Louis since he left high school for the University of Missouri. He then had a stop at the New Orleans Times-Picayune before heading to Denver. But he has kept close tabs on his home town.
“We’re certainly sad to lose him, but he’s going to be an asset to your community,” Petty said. “To be able to go home — not everybody gets to do that. He’s got an incredible opportunity.”
Hochman knows that.“I adore St. Louis,I’m an eternal fan of St. Louis, the city,” he said. “I’m in to all things St. Louis. I try to watch as many Cardinals games as I can.”
But he’ll be writing about much more than baseball.
“I’m going to jump into every big issue as soon as I canwith all the teams — Cardinals, Blues, Rams, Mizzou football, what have you,” he said.
The Rams’ situation, with a possible move to Los Angeles expected to be in the headlines all fall, will be a focal point. And he has a connection with Rams owner Stan Kroenke, having covered him in Denver — where Kroenke’s family owns the city’s NBA and NHL teams.
“It’s good jumping into this new job knowing I have a background knowledge of the family,’’ Hochman said. “I’ve written some tough stuff about them over the years and the good thing is that we’re all grown-ups here and we treat each other with respect even if there is frustration.
“Obviously the Rams means Kroenke and it means this huge story overtaking what actually could be a pretty good season on the field.”
QUIP CORNER
Hochman loves comedy, whether it’s on stage or working it into his columns. To wit (pun intended), here are a couple of tweets he posted after being hired in St. Louis:
• “You know you’re moving to St. Louis when your People You Know suddenly includes Brook Dubman.”
• “Perils of moving home. Ran into old my old coach: “Benjamin Hochman! Congrats on the job! … Looks like you’ve put on a little weight.”
He said he often had joked that “I’m the 16th funniest Jew in Denver” but is not sure where he will rank on that list in St. Louis.
“I’ve always been fascinated by stand-up comedy and utilizing comedy in a sports prism,” he said. “For me, I get a kick out of making people laugh. As a beat writer, it’s tougher to bring it on an article-by-article basis. But once you develop your voice as a columnist, there is freedom to try to take some risks with some jokes.
“I like to do stand-up comedy, improv. Not only is it challenging, but I really think it enhances my writing because it constantly has me on my toes thinking about not just saying something that could be deemed as funny, but something that is undeniably funny.”
Then he caught himself.
“Now I’m setting myself up as (giving the perception) that Jerry Seinfeld will be writing a column for the Post-Dispatch,’’ he said. “By no means am I Jerry Seinfeld. Maybe I’m like his little brother, Seth Seinfeld.”
Such humor will come in handy for his local radio gig: He has been lined up to be a guest twice a week on the “Morning After” show that airs from 7-10 a.m. weekdays on WGNU (920 AM).
A ‘UNIQUE’ STYLE
All kidding aside, Hochman is serious about his writing style.
“I definitely have worked very hard to develop a voice to the point where someone reads something they don’t even need to see my byline they’ll go, ‘Oh that’s a Benjamin Hochman column.’ I love alliteration, I love metaphors, I love writing. I’m a big dork and I’m sure that numerous Clayton High English teachers will read this column and say ‘I can vouch for that, he is a big English dork.’”
But don’t look for him to be a “dork” when taking a stance.
“There is no denying his voice will have a familiar, hometown ring to it,” Hensley, Hochman’s new boss, said. “But I think readers are going to be sadly mistaken if they think he’s going to only be a mouthpiece or booster for our local sports teams. It’s obvious from his portfolio that Benjamin’s not afraid to take owners and players to task if necessary. I would expect the same here. But he never seems to do it in a mean-spirited way. I find his style unique with his ability to take tough or complex subjects and break them down in a way in which we can all relate.”
Sports Illustrated’s Joan Niesen, a native St. Louisan, previously was a colleague of Hochman’s in Denver and said he is not bashful. Before moving to Colorado, her first job after leaving Mizzou was in Minnesota where she covered the NBA’s Timberwolves for the local Fox Sports regional cable outlet. She met Hochman then, when he was covering the Denver Nuggets.
“He marched up to me and said, ‘Hello, my name is Benjamin. I’m from St. Louis, I went to Mizzou and I know everything about you,’” she said. “I was like, ‘Oh hello, we’re going to be friends.’ That’s Ben in a nutshell.”
She said he can approach stories with a different mindset than most, which she discovered at that first game they covered together.
“He was asking questions that most people don’t ask after games,” she said. “It was like, ‘OK, this guy has a very different perspective than some people do,’ the kind of perspective I like to havein my work, too.”
Niesen, a 2006 graduate of Visitation Academy, knows St. Louis and said Hochman will adapt quickly to his new position.
“He’s going to do a great job,’’ she said. “He loves St. Louis so much.”
Hochman’s style is adaptable, as the situation merits.
“He is somebody who doesn’t take himself too seriously, which is a really big part of his humor,’’ said Petty. “He’s self-deprecating, and I think that makes him endearing to a lot of people. But he’s serious when he needs to be serious.”
Hochman, meanwhile, said he speaks to students a lot, encouraging them to stand out.
“Make your words pop off the page,” he said is his advice. “A lot of people have opinions. A lot of people have access to interviewing athletes. It’s up to the columnist to take it to the next level, to transcend the reporting to make it something that is worth the readers’ time and to make them think and laugh and cry,” depending on the topic. “That’s the goal.”
And we can imagine if he has his druthers, he’ll want his readers laughing more than crying.
