A crafty, sports-loving and sometimes participatory journalist (in the style of George Plimpton, though not so high-end), Eger gained a new level of attention in 2012 by publishing in The New York Times a long piece on playing hoops in the five boroughs of his adoptive hometown. The article was less profane but just as earnest and interesting as those he posts on his blog, The Pick-Up, which tend to come more from the spectator perspective.
Brooklyn-based (of course), after college in Portland, he admits the hipster credentials but doesn’t shine them up. He has, however, written about The Simpsons. Honed his formidable storytelling skills with a byline in Sarasota, Florida. The personal nature of his best journalism is well-described by this insight into the often outsize passion of the sports fan: “The depth of pleasure is mirrored and depends wholly on the potential for pain.”