When NYIT announced that they had hired Adam Rubin in 2017 to be the Assistant Athletic Director for Strategic Communications, it came as a surprise to many people–considering Adam had built up the largest following on social media of any beat reporter in baseball. He had covered the Mets for the New York Daily News as well as ESPN New York for 15 years and was the most plugged in of all the beat reporters.
New York Mets fans are passionate beyond belief, and his presence provided a sense of comfort during the tumultuous times. His daily “Morning Briefings” were must-read for die-hard fans, as well as his annual “Projected Arbitration Salaries” and his patented “OH NO” tweets when the typical Mets moments would occur.
Just about everyone was surprised by the news except for me–who had bumped into Adam at the annual Scout Dinner at Leonard’s Palazzo during January when he informed me he would be making the switch to PR. He wound up playing a critical role in the resurgence of the NYIT athletic department and they received a disproportionate amount of coverage in relation to the national stature of the school. Despite the transition to college, Adam’s tireless work ethic never took a backseat. In fact, he could often be found walking around campus with his laptop in hand, or hustling around the baseball field to set up the HD cameras. The program went from 13 wins to 37 wins one season and their first appearance in the College World Series in 2019. He was able to get Mets legend David Wright to come down to a practice and speak to the team. They live streamed every home game with 4-6 HD cameras and had an announcer in the booth.
Stony Brook tweeted today that they had hired Adam Rubin for the role of Assistant Athletic Director for Strategic Communications.
I had a chance to speak with Adam–ironically on the day that it was announced Steven Cohen would be purchasing 80 percent of the Mets–to discuss a number of topics. Despite his past connection to the Mets, he insists he hasn’t follow the team in two years and also had no indication that the Wilpons were looking to sell.
Can you discuss your new role with Stony Brook?
It’s incredibly exciting to join Stony Brook Athletics and work alongside Athletic Director Shawn Heilbron and Deputy Athletic Director Rob Emmerich. They are opening a new field house, it’s an unbelievable facility. As Nick Grande mentioned on your podcast, it’s the program on Long Island that you want to be affiliated with. Everyone remembers the 2012 run through LSU and their trip to the World Series.
I’m joining a team of people that are performing at a high-level already. I will be working on content creation, building the social media, also working on the game broadcasts and live-streaming. Basically enhancing what they’re already doing. With my background in journalism–this is something I have a knack for. It will be similar to MLB.com, but since we are part of a university we are not going to be ripping anyone–just quality coverage such as feature stories and game recaps.
We are looking to make it year-round, similar to what you do. So if we have guys in the Hamptons League, there will be stories on that. We did that at NY Tech throughout the year.
Did you envision NY Tech having the success they had and can you explain your time there?
Last season was the most enjoyable season I’ve had covering baseball and that includes the 2015 World Series when the Mets played the Royals.
It was amazing to see Frank take over a 13-win team and bringing them to the College World Series. We had a 4-to-6 camera broadcast and while it was nothing like SNY or ESPN, it was the closest thing to it. In terms of content, we even had 20 baseball stories in September and October. We basically doubled our traffic each year and this year was 1.5 million page views during the academic year. The biggest day in terms of traffic was the day the baseball team threw the no-hitter. Baseball drove much of the traffic because people were really excited about their success.
The alumni were not ecstatic about the switch from Division-I to Division-II but they came back on board when they saw the success they had. Joe Daru, who is an actor in LA, flew out to the College World Series, so it was cool to see how everyone was following that.
Was it strange going from Major League coverage to college coverage and not dealing with a rabid fan base?
Well the first five years of my career was spent in Birmingham, AL so I would argue that that’s a rabid fan base. But the best part of the job transition was that the skillset is very similar. Years ago, the Athletic Communication departments would basically put out daily game recaps but over time it has shifted–now it’s much more. When the Mets made the World Series in 2015 I was chronicling someone else’s moment. When NYIT made it, even though I wasn’t a part of it, I was up close to the success and had more access to the behind-the-scenes and was able to see what made them so successful.
Was it frustrating having to deal with the 24/7 news cycles and people tweeting at you for information?
I was in the business for two decades so I saw it dramatically change. In the beginning, you either had your story done in time to make it to the morning paper or not. If not, you waited for the next day. Then I remember when I was working for the Daily News and I had caught wind of the Carlos Delgado trade to the Mets. It was Thanksgiving of 2005 and I had asked my editor if he wanted to wait for the next day or run it on the online edition. He told me to wait for tomorrow so we can outscoop the NY Post. Imagine that now? The story would never hold. Then it became even if you broke the story, it became non-stop. For example I remember when the Mets traded for Addison Reed and I had gotten wind of it and I tweeted out the little details I did know. People used to hold on to info until you had everything but now you tweet the info you do know. Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweeted out the prospects that were involved. It’s almost like you have to be looking at your Twitter feed 24/7. Like today, maybe you didn’t break the Wilpon news but you could look into getting more details about it.
Were there any players you had a good connection with during your time covering the Mets?
I’ll always be partial to David Wright, that’s one of the reasons I was able to get him to the NY Tech practice. Him coming down really helped shift the mindset of the players to ‘hey maybe we are important’. We used to joke that our careers followed the same arc. I started covering the Mets when he was in A-Ball and I told him I outlasted him but he said ‘not by much’. He wasn’t a leaker or a source, but for someone of his stature he was strikingly generous. We stay in touch to a certain extent.
Among the more high-profile players, Tom Glavine was someone I enjoyed, he was very thoughtful. I’m really dating myself here, but also Cliff Floyd. There was a lot of nice guys. Also Eric Valent, he’s a guy you would never know was a Major League baseball player. Also, Brandon Nimmo is famously nice and Nick Evans I had a good relationship with. Actually, there’s far more nice guys than not.
As we know the Mets were shrouded in mystery for much of late 2000s. Was it sometimes difficult to write content when the information wasn’t always readily-available?
One thing I didn’t enjoy–and I supposed I was successful with it–was calling up the GM at midnight or one in the morning but the job demands those kinds of things. Sometimes I would’ve preferred a no comment rather than ignoring the text.
Writers always get this adrenaline rush from breaking a story. I guess it’s a mixed bag but you sort of know what you’re getting into as a journalist.
When was your off-season as a beat writer?
There was never an off-season. That’s especially true if the Mets were in the playoffs. You get done with the baseball season on November 1 and then it goes right into free agency–sometimes the rumors begin before that. Then you have an agent like Scott Boras dragging negotiations into Spring Training. I would go on vacation the week from Christmas to New Years–that’s typically a light week. Also in those days of phone plans there was an excuse of having no phone. I used that time to decompress more than anything. When you are working at the Daily News, you have a ton of writers and you can delegate a little. At ESPN, even though there were great national writers like Buster Olney, Jerry Crasnick and Tim Kurkjian that were tremendously helpful, I was the only guy covering the Mets. I was fortunate to do it for 15 years.
What was your role in Alabama?
I worked five years for the Birmingham News so I had a good deal of experience by the time I got to New York. I covered high school and college sports, I covered the White Sox Double-A affiliate when they had guys like Mark Buehrle and Aaron Rowand. I was the UAB beat writer and covered some Alabama/LSU games, so I had a good grasp of reporting.
Lastly, what’s your vision for Stony Brook?
Well, as I said they are already performing at high-level. I’m looking to come in and blend my skills with their skills. I feel my skills include print articles, videos, feature stories, etc. I plan on doing this with the baseball team. I already have a lot of ideas in mind.
