Baseball Book Report: The Bullpen Gospels + a Mish Mosh of Loosely Related Topics
I read, rather incessantly if the truth be told. For me it’s primarily a way of maintaining sanity. Something about disappearing into someone else’ story or an intriguing bit of non-fiction boosts my mood and settles my oft chaotically busy brain back into less stressed out functionality. Except, since late February I haven’t read much of anything. I have been too stressed out to settle down long enough for anything to grab my interest. It’s been miserable.
Finally, I picked up Dirk Hayhurst’s tale of minor league life, The Bullpen Gospels. I was so charmed by his turn of phrase and the compelling mix of humor and gut wrenching introspection, that I devoured it like a starving person in about two days, thus breaking up the longest “slump” of my “career.” One of the jacket quotes describes the book as Bull Durham meets Ball Four. On some levels this is true, especially on the humorous end of things. Never have kangaroo court proceedings been reported with such glee and the tales of out heckling rowdy opposing team fans are truly hilarious. But on the serious side of things, Hayhurst’s very much non-fiction back story and his personal stakes for failure are much darker and the introspection is more deliberate.
Ultimately, it’s the book’s juxtaposition of different elements that grabbed me. The silly with the serious. The drive for a major league baseball career with the motivation to have a lasting impact on the world. Beautifully related insider game tidbits peppered with references to Narnia, Charley and the Chocolate Factory, Conan the Barbarian and other wonderful oddities. I am a huge fan of that last part especially, as you might have guessed from the hodgepodge of strange side stuff I incorporate into this blog. Suffice to say, add The Bullpen Gospels to my list of recommended reads and many thanks to Dirk Hayhurst for helping me find my way back to my reading mechanics, as it were. Yes, of course he will read this, just like the Angels. Why do you ask? 😉
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After busting out of my biblio-slump, I began tearing my way once again through the stack of books to be read, and one of the first things that caught my interest also happened to have a blog tie-in. Jim Butcher’s “Curses,” a new short story in the Dresden Files series included in Ellen Datlow’s recently released urban fantasy anthology Naked City. In this story we find Harry Dresden, detective, warden and the only wizard in the Chicago phone book taking on the Cubs’ Billy Goat Curse. And the end result? A very fun read. I had no idea Butcher was a baseball fan and if he isn’t, he fakes it nicely. This is a lighter Dresden tale, as Butcher often chooses to share in these anthologies, and would be relatively easy for someone who hasn’t read the series up until now to pick up. And if you had the misfortune of watching the Sci-Fi Channel’s terrible TV series adaptation of these books, don’t worry, the books are a completely different animal.
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Speaking of books and baseball, there was a really cute news feature in one of the early July episodes of Angels Weekly showing Angels rookies Hank Conger and Mark Trumbo and recent rookie Peter Bourjos car pooling to the interleague games at Dodgers Stadium. The adorable part was how nonchalant and professional they were trying to be about having reporters videoing their ride, when it was obvious they could barely contain their glee over the very Big Leagues novelty of the whole thing.
The three young Angels shot the breeze on a number of subjects, eventually settling on upcoming movie releases that had piqued their interest. Conger, it turned out, could not wait for the new Harry Potter movie because he loves Harry Potter and has read all of the books, thus earning several Kristen approval points, not that they’re worth anything. 😉 Bourjos and Trumbo laughed at this revelation and exchanged “Here Hank goes again” looks before each asked the other if he had ever finished an entire book willingly. No, neither one had, and both clearly thought Conger was the odd duck on this subject. But their teasing was affectionate and the whole conversation reminded me of a funny story from my high school days…
One day before class during my sophomore year, I had just put down a book I was reading to joke around with a group of baseball players, a fairly typical day. The guys were teasing me about my reading habits, mainly that I had them. I was the stat girl for the varsity team and had gone through grade school and then some with most of these JV players. We were friends. The teasing was affectionate and I was giving it right back. “Did your parents brainwash you or something?” asked a guy I had known literally since preschool. “Yes, and once you get past the machine that holds your eyes open really wide, the drugs are actually kind of fun…” I responded, or something to that effect.
Old friend kept it up and I finally asked him if there was any book he would willingly read. He pretended to gag and loudly protested, of course not. And all of the baseball players predictably laughed. Yeah, the boy didth protest too much, especially to someone who knew about his extensive Darth Vader collection. Fortunatley, timing was on my side and I held aloft the recently released book to reveal the shiny new cover – Timothy Zahn’s Dark Force Rising, the second book in the very first Star Wars series to tackle the question of just what happened after the conclusion of the original movie trilogy. Old friend emitted what can only be described as a squeal of delight and practically dove over a row of desks to get a closer look. “Oh my god! It’s out! I didn’t know it was out yet! Is it good? The last one was so good…” and so on. And he wasn’t the only one. Bwa ha ha.
The moral of this story? Careful Bourjos and Trumbo. Reading isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and there’s nothing wrong with that. But someday you may just find that one book that has you diving over a desk and looking silly, LOL.
This is a very simple game... 
I read “The Bullpen Gospels” when it came out last year. A very entertaining and insightful read. I too am an obsessive reader, and neither of my children can understand why I enjoy it so much, and will only read under the threat of bodily harm (I’m beginning to think maybe there was a mixup at the hospital or something!). Another really enjoyable book (if you haven’t yet read it) along the same lines is “Odd Man Out” by Matt McCarthy, which chronicles his life in the minor leagues.
Sue
http://rrrt.mlblogs.com/
That’s neat that you’re a reader too, Sue, and thanks for the recommendation! I’ve been meaning to check out Odd Man Out, actually. It’s set in the Angels minor league system. There’s been a lot of controversey around how truthful McCarthy was on some details, but I take most memoirs’ named name specifics with a grain of salt anyway.
— Kristen
Okay I’m adding The Bullpen Gospels to my reading list. Thanks for the heads up! And I admit, I was a HUGE fan of the Zahn books but quickly gave up once a bazillion other post-Jedi books came out. It got to the point where I couldn’t keep up.
–Jeff
Jeff – De nada. I hope you enjoy it. He he, I figured there would be fans of the Zahn books among the MLBloggers around my age. I didn’t read any of the others either, just Zahn’s three…well…and the Han Solo Adventures, but those three novellas are different. Published just before the theatrical release of Empire, they are the back story of Han Solo – my favorite character! – and Chewbacca and always seemed more pure and closer to the source material somehow.
— Kristen
I’m glad you mentioned ” The Bullpen Gospels”. I remember that Keith Olbermann wrote about Hayhurst and his book sometime last year before it had come out and I was interested in reading it, but had forgotten about the book by the time it actually was available.
Pleased to be of service Russel. I hope you enjoy it.
— Kristen
I haven’t read The Bullpen Gospels even though it was authored by a former Jay. I should really get on that one day. I am however in the middle of Joe Torre’s Yankee Years, which has been pretty entertaining so far.
http://bluejaysnest.mlblogs.com/
Bluejaysnest – I forgot Hayhurst was on the Jays. Joe Torre’s book is on my list too…after I get a bit fiction in. I tend to flip flop between the two.
— Kristen