A.G. "Baller of a New Generation" Sulzberger—son of NYT publisher Pinch Sulzberger, heir to the throne of the Times empire, and natural wisenheimer—has completed his exile in Middle America, where he helmed the Kansas City desk and was forced to endure prolonged periods of subpar vegetarian cooking. He's coming home... TO RULE. To work on the Metro Desk, we mean. Don't fool yourselves; he'll be ruling soon enough.

The following memo just went out to NYT Metro staffers:

Folks

I am delighted to tell you that Arthur G. Sulzberger, fresh from his adventures chasing tornadoes, small town gossips and Fast Eddie the fugitive across the Midwest, is coming home to Metro.

Arthur will join the desk as a backfielder early next month.

He first landed in Metro in 2009, when he joined the City Room team and threw himself into the blogging business with energy and imagination.

He blogged from aboard the U.S.S. New York as it made its way here from Norfolk, Va., in 2009. He live blogged the rainy 9/11 anniversary ceremony that same week.

Not all of his assignments were so somber: he also explored stories of alligators in the city's sewer systems and handcrafted hoops on local basketball courts.

Arthur covered Brooklyn federal court in 2010, chronicling subway bombing plots, wrongful convictions and questionable conduct by the district attorney's office.

He was then scooped up by National, where, as Sam Sifton said, "Arthur proved that opening a news bureau in Kansas City, Missouri, was not merely a good idea but a great one. He reveled in quirky, revealing stories (like an accounting of the last shop to process Kodachrome, or a profile of a man who, at 103, was the oldest still-serving federal judge in the country). But when big news came along, again and again he showed that there was no steadier hand on the desk."

Arthur, who has a gift for spotting stories in hidden corners and bringing them to life on the page, will be overseeing a talented team of borough and courthouse reporters.

Please join me in welcoming him back. Sam will post the Kansas City job later today.

Carolyn

Arthur, we reiterate our invitation to go bowling, now that you're back in civilization. Email me.