“Well, I sort of got sidetracked.”

This line is tied to Roy Hobbs in “The Natural.” If you’ve read Bernard Malamud’s book or watched the 1980’s film with Robert Redford (complete with the incorrect ending), you know what I’m talking about. If not, I won’t go into the details.

Hobbs was not getting anywhere with the New York Knights baseball team. Finally, he was given the chance to take batting practice … and proceeded to knock the ball all over the place.

This prompts the skipper to come out and ask Hobbs “All these years and you’ve never played any big-league ball?”

Hobbs says “Well, I sort of got sidetracked.”

I know the feeling.

It’s why I set this website up. Yes, it’s nice to have my name tied to the site. Couldn’t get the .com name, but JesseHorne.net is not a bad fallback. This is an age where online and social media presence is - for better and for worse - almost as important as the work to which you are hired to create.

Working on the website has also been, so far, a neat experience to go back and look at some of what I’ve actually done. I’ve looked back at my on-air work for KUSA in Denver, through the few pieces I kept from KGWN in Cheyenne, Wyo., and now here for WEAU in my hometown of Eau Claire, Wis. - almost 10 years in day-to-day television journalism. Honestly, it amazes me to what I’ve actually done and how much I’ve matured in this profession - in front of the camera and behind-the-scenes.

For those of you on your own scouting mission, I hope you are taking notes on what you see and can report back to me on what you like.

In an attempt to keep things fresh on this site, I’ll be, from time to time, offering some perspectives on how things look from where I stand. 

There will be moments of inspiration mixed in with random musings that, I hope, can give you a better sense of the journey I’ve had. I’ll also dip back more into some of the moments which really hit me the strongest - the moments we look back and go “I was really there!”

These will be under the overall header of “TBD”. My future has yet to be determined. That’s one of the points of setting up this website. While the road ahead is TBD, it’ll be nice to look at where I’ve already gone and see what was determined by the twists and turns along the way.

Now, I’ve been once-bitten, twice-shy when I have opened up before on a digital platform. This website is for showcasing who I am, what I’m doing, and what I can do. So, don’t expect these write-ups to be like I’m laying on the couch in the psychiatrist’s office.

Another thing that won’t happen here - saying anything that’ll inflame, incite, anger, or disturb. As Johnny Carson once said, when asked why he didn’t get controversial: “Why alienate half your audience?” Besides, if you’re in need of that kind of dialogue, there are plenty of other avenues to go to for that.

In short, these musings are going to be almost like those prints you see in the doctor’s office waiting room - “HOPE”, “DETERMINATION”, “CONFIDENCE” … only, I’ll try to offer some nicer artwork.

While I sort of got sidetracked in my career, I’m now holding my bat and ready to knock it out of the park once again.

Who’s ready to catch the souvenir ball?