Martin Henderson, Patch Staff

Email: martin.henderson at patch.com

Phone: 949-354-1734

Birthday: Feb. 5

In the summer of 2013, Martin Henderson was named Online Journalist of the Year by the Los Angeles Press Club, of which the judges said: His work serves as a model for the future of journalism on the Internet.'

Raised in a rural farming community in Northern California, Martin Henderson won a sports writing contest at the local newspaper during his senior year at Lindhurst High. A few months later he was covering games and getting paid $25, which he used for insurance and gas money while attending Sacramento State. At one point during his junior year, after it was apparent that Major League Baseball had no use for a junk-balling right-handed pitcher, he transitioned from writing weekly at the local paper to working daily at the weekly paper. Both the Marysville Appeal-Democrat and Yuba City Valley-Herald were positive experiences, and after a brief stop in radio as a part-time on-air personality, Martin moved to San Diego where he anchored sports coverage for three weekly papers in the Poway-Rancho Bernardo area. He also made a stop at the Oceanside Blade Tribune, hired as a page designer but also working in editorial. He finally achieved his goal, working at the Los Angeles Times, albeit its San Diego County Edition, in 1990, just six years after graduating college with a degree in communications studies. Because his very early childhood was spent at the dragstrip where his father raced a motorcycle on weekends, Martin wasn’t intimidated like other stick-and-ball reporters when the opportunity to cover the Grand Prix of Del Mar presented itself. That began a long association with auto racing and eventually mentoring from Shav Glick, a member of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. Spending a career primarily as a sportswriter has provided Martin some very cool perks: Meeting most of his childhood heroes (Roman Gabriel, Nolan Ryan), getting the occasional media ride in a race car (176 mph in the backseat of a two-seater Indy car driven by Jimmy Vasser in Long Beach) and filling up a lot of scrapbooks for grandparents. He has covered professional baseball, football, hockey and indoor soccer. He has worked a World Series and a Super Bowl. Now, as media transitions, Martin does too, his days in newsprint replaced by bandwidth, coaches replaced by councilmen, and the pitch replaced by a Patch. His Patch, your Patch.

Call Martin at 949-354-1734, or write him at martin.henderson at patch.com.

At Patch, we promise always to report the facts objectively and adhere to the principles of good journalism. In the spirit of simple honesty, our policy is to encourage our editors to reveal their beliefs to the extent they feel comfortable.

Beliefs: Apart from salvation, if you were to describe the Bible’s contents in two words, it would be this—Be honorable. As long as you do that, you are doing right by people. In the context of my position in the media, it translates to being fair. If I am fair, no one should have any complaints. But fair is not the same as not upsetting people.

Politics: I like team sports, but when it comes to politics, I am a free agent. It is not necessary that I align with one party or another, but instead vote with the common sense I expect our candidates to have. There is no way one party can represent all that I stand for or care about, especially in a nation in which it seems only two parties really matter. In local government, does it really matter if you are a Republican or a Democrat? Not the way I see it. What matters is you have a good head on your shoulders and you have the interests of the community at stake, and not your own. If you are going to be in politics, just be honorable. And don’t lie to me, because if you lie to me you’re lying to the people of the community. The are the ones who I represent.

Religion: I am a Christian, although you probably would not know it by my language whilst driving. I need to do better not only there, but everywhere.