Welcome to Mike’s Hardball Talk
Mike’s Hardball Talk is a publication in which Michael McDermott writes and talks about the Arizona Diamondbacks and Major League Baseball. Michael is a diehard baseball fan and has been writing about the D-backs since 2015 and has published more than 2,000 articles on AZ Snake Pit, Sports Illustrated, and Burn City Sports and been credentialed for more than 40 MLB regular season games at Chase Field and three years in the Arizona Fall League.
While this publication doesn’t have insider access to the team, Michael seeks to use his perspective gained from covering all these games to provide the best coverage of the team possible. The goal of this publication is to foster a more healthy dialogue about the team and how it operates. Coverage includes game day reports, prospects coverage, hard-hitting analysis on how the players are performing, and reaction to breaking news on the D-backs and Major League Baseball.
Michael is currently working on planning out a separate podcast to go with the writing to share more of his and others perspectives from inside the game of baseball.
Hopefully you enjoy the content provided here at Mike’s Hardball Talk! If you do, feel free to support the publication by subscribing.
If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, feel free to reach out.
— Michael McDermott
Why Subscribe?
Mike’s Hardball Talk takes a different approach to baseball coverage than recent publications that have popped up online. In the era of aggregator sites that rely on posting a lot of clickbait content to drive engagement, Michael seeks to cover the D-backs using his own perspective and doing things the right way. By supporting his efforts, it’s showing the world that quality coverage beats clickbait.
About Michael
Michael is originally from the Virginia side of the Washington D.C. metro area but moved to the Phoenix area during the summer of 2002 and currently lives in the East Valley (Gilbert). He started watching the D-backs during the 2004 season and has attended at least one game every year since the 2006 season. Some of his favorite players to put on the team’s uniform include Randy Johnson, Paul Goldschmidt, Ketel Marte, and Geraldo Perdomo.
Michael joined the writing team at AZ Snake Pit after the 2015 season, assisting in daily minor league recaps and other important items. He then help launched Diamondbacks on SI, then called Inside the Diamondbacks before the SI license switched to Minute Media, with Jack Sommers in September 2022 and wrote there until May 2024. After a short stint at Burn City Sports to close out the 2024 regular season, he is now a free agent writer and is looking forward to building his own brand unattached to any other writing platform.
Michael is a prospect enthusiast by nature, always looking towards the future for both himself and the D-backs, since the present often never looks good in either case. His long-term goal in baseball is to become an MLB beat writer, a goal he got to live out for a couple of years before self-inflicted mistakes put that dream on hold.
You can follow Michael on X @MichaelMcDMLB or Bluesky @MichaelMcDMLB. Additionally, you can contact him at michaelmcdermott8393@gmail.com if you have any opportunities or feedback to grow the website.
