Odd Man Out: A Year on the Mound with a Minor League Misfit

Dirk Hayhurst wrote one of the funniest, most telling, intelligent treatises of minor league baseball life I have ever read. Hayhurst was a career minor leaguer who had moved from the lowest rungs of the system up to AAA. He wrote of the hilarity, the joy of winning, even at the lowest levels, and the stomach churning nervousness at every level. The themes of loyalty, the difficulty of independence, and self belief are all explored in depth in this book, in this reviewer's opinion, one of the finest baseball stories ever written.Matt McCarthy, in his own way, is a poor man's Hayhurst. His career only lasted one year, comprising of a stop in the lowest or the low league. His narration is breezy, and an honest look at his circumstance and his abilities. The hilarity does not reach the height of Hayhurst's adventure, and McCarthy's self examination is not as deep.McCarthy finds himself in certain predicaments, such as when his girlfriend, who he has been pining for, and remaining faithful to for the better part of a season, flies in for a visit, only to announce that she is a born again, and has re-virginized herself.For all the pain, fun and disappointment, McCarthy walks away from his career learning lessons from his career. Those of perseverence, of learning and accepting one's limitations, of laughing at one's own bizarre circumstance, and making decisions to play by honest means and accept the consequences, even while others around him are cheating.I found myself wondering whether I would enjoy the experience of competing on a professional team, giving my all, even while I knew my talent would not carry me. I think I would make the same decisions as Mr. McCarthy.

I'm a baseball nut and have covered minor league baseball in the past, so this one was of extra special interest. I love these first-person stories about life in the low minors and what people did to get through it. Long bus rides, crappy food, low pay and not knowing what their lives will be like in the future.The life of a minor leaguer isn't easy. Matt McCarthy takes us through one year in the minors -- his lone year in professional baseball -- in Provo, Utah. From getting drafted, to signing to playing ball in a Mormon community, he gives us a colorful look at what it's like to have this lifestyle and to push forward with the dream of playing Major League Baseball. From arguments on the team, to racial tensions, to religion and long bus rides, this book is a colorful look at the lifestyle.I've seen the reviews that say some of the things can't be backed up, but I expect that in books like this as it would likely be near impossible to have every piece of info be dead-on. It's a long season and I'm sure details get meshed together into others, which can create some confusion.Still, this book is an excellent read. I finished it over a couple of days and for baseball fans, this should be a quick and good read. McCarthy seems like a likable guy who isn't too far off many other minor leaguers. The big wads of chew in the lip, beer, girls in small towns, swearing and everything else is what it's like in many other minor league towns.It's a good read and well worth the time, especially for a baseball fan.

Whether it's fair or not, most baseball biographies these days are compared to BALL FOUR by Jim Bouton, and this book is no exception as is evidenced by the blurbs on the back cover. But Bouton was a major leaguer who spilled the beans on the after hours shenanigans his teammates got involved in, the author of ODD MAN OUT, Matt McCarthy, is a minor league pitcher for the Provo Angels and should more rightly be compared to Pat Jordan's FALSE SPRING. As I recall that was a much more serious book. The most obvious comparison is that a pitching coach tried to change McCarthy's delivery; Jordan was subjected to the same advice and it ruined his arm.There are a lot of familiar names mentioned in ODD MEN OUT. The first one I noticed was Craig Breslow, a relief pitcher for the Minnesota Twins. McCarthy and Breslow were both left-handed starting pitchers for the Yale Bulldogs and amazingly both biophysics majors. Another would be Bobby Jenks, now a closer for the White Sox, who was a washout for the Los Angeles Dodgers, mainly because of a drinking problem and the fact that he'd threatened to kill one of his coaches. Then there was Joe Saunders, a first round draft choice for the Angels who gets preferential treatment and bothersome media coverage. It can't help but go to his head. There are at least a dozen other recognizable names. I just saw one of them play for the Los Angeles Angels at shortstop this weekend, one of the "Dominicans," Erick Aybar.Surprisingly, the most fascinating character in the book is not a player. Tom Kotchman, Casey Kotchman's father, wins that accolade hands down. He berates his players when they lose, gives them the silent treatment on seventeen-hour boss rides when they lose again. He does Dice Clay impressions when they win and he wears an obscene talisman around his neck for good luck.McCarthy also goes into elaborate detail about the relationships between the "Dominican" players and the Americans. The Dominicans would include anybody from south of the border, Mexicans, Venezuelans, and even a few actual Dominicans. The American players refused to shower with them because of their bawdy behavior while soaping up. It's pretty much a culture clash in other respects as well. One particularly amusing anecdote involved Ervin Santana, who now starts for the Los Angeles Angels. A coach Brian Harper, who caught for the Minnesota Twins in the 1991 World Series, was trying to teach his pitchers how to cover first base and Santana kept screwing up. Harper accuses Santana of a lack of teamwork, betting him he doesn't know McCarthy's name. The best Santana could do was "McCorksky" and that was McCarthy's nickname from then on.Provo, Utah, home of the rookie league team, also provides some ammunition for McCarthy. Of course there's the Mormon factor to think about. He lives like a prince with one of the host families there but that doesn't stop him from referring to some of them as Jack Mormons, who conform to church conventions but drink and carouse on the sly.Most of McCarthy's humor doesn't quite ring true. Although he gets drunk at one point and chews tobacco for the first time in another instance, most of the time McCarthy lives up to his bio-physics credential. He's just too much of an attaboy to tell an effective Jim Bouton anecdote.

This is a hilarious book that follows the author one season playing for a minor-league baseball team. He focuses on all the crazy characters that make up the team and all the insane road trips that the team is forced to take (at one point they travel from Utah to Medicine Hat, Alberta ,Canada, a trip that takes 17 hours by bus!!). The team is based in Provo, Utah, home to a large Mormon community. The players, for the most part, have a very hard time with this as it means very restricted availability of alcohol, no games on Sundays and other things. One thing that surprised me is the division in the team between the Americans and the Dominicans (an umbrella term for all the Latino players). Rarely, if ever, do they interact outside of the game. Overall, a very funny book with some sobering passages(players getting released from the team is a lot more traumatic than I expected it to be).

Good book. Well written and entertaining. It left me wishing it was longer and that the author’s career had covered more than the one pro season.

I found this book to be very interesting and entertaining, an Yale student trying to break into MLB.Down-to-earth language that one would expect from q bunch of men.Books by Matt McCarthy is worth reading.

i found this book very enjoyable well worth purchasing ,well worth reading an excellent account of life in the minor leagues