The "Bullpen Gospels" by Dirk Hayhurst is one of my new favorite baseball books. I think "Everything Happens in Chillicothe" is still my all time favorite baseball book, but this might be a close second.
Hayhurst writes a very fun and entertaining book about players having a good time in the minors, hoping to make their way up to the majors.
There are many, MANY fun stories in here. If you like reading a book simply for fun stories about baseball's minor leaguers, you can't go wrong with this book.
Dirk is open about his own personal flaws in the book. He even reveals some moments when he has been vain and a little uppity.
There is a fun story about Dirk, humbly volunteering at a soup kitchen. He thinks that some of the people coming in for food might enjoy having an autographed baseball card from him. Obviously, a signed baseball card is pretty meaningless to some of the folks coming in. Dirk ends up helping one of the people in need by trading his good shoes for the man's worn out footwear.
Another time, Dirk is dealing with his stresses in life (family problems, career choices,etc). He gives a baseball to a young disabled boy who actually can't even grasp the ball. He realizes that his problems do not seem so significant.
Personally, I am a huge fan of the Frontier League. Frontier League managing legend John Massarelli makes an appearance in this book, which is pretty cool with me. On an unrelated topic, why hasn't affiliated baseball given this guy a chance??
Oh, Yoda and the Baseball Grim Reaper show up too! Both are fun characters, but I am more impressed with Massarelli myself.
Anyway, this is a really nice book.
No comments:
Post a Comment