Monday 19 July 2010

The Bullpen Gospels by Dirk Hayhurst

I enjoy books on minor league baseball so this one caught my eye. 

From the humble heights of a Class-A pitcher's mound to the deflating lows of sleeping on his gun-toting grandmother's air mattress, veteran reliever Dirk Hayhurst steps out of the bullpen to deliver the best pitch of his career-a raw, unflinching and surprisingly moving account of his life in the minors. Hayhurst captures the absurdities, the grim realities, and the occasional nuggets of hard-won wisdom culled from four seasons in the minors. "After many minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years spent in the bullpen, I can verify that this is a true picture of baseball." -Tim McCarver . 

This was an excellent read. I found Hayhurst brutally honest about his emotions, abilities, insecurities and family. There were many touching stories, intermingled with some funny team antics, and some antics and conversations I could do without but were crucial to put the reader into the bullpen with the author. Some of the stories give Hayhurst a struggle as to how baseball fits into life, or how life fits into baseball. I would recommend this to any baseball fan or to someone who enjoys reading a brutally honest story of a year in a person's life.

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