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Odd Man Out: A Year On The Mound With A Minor League Misfit (2009)

by Matt McCarthy(Favorite Author)

3.77 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

0670020702 (ISBN13: 9780670020706)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Viking Adult

review 1: Yale graduate Matt McCarthy is your guide to the minor leagues in this book that chronicles his year as a pitcher with the Angels organization, playing in Provo, Utah.The schedule is alternately grueling and mind-numbingly boring. Coaching styles careen between gentle paternalism and obscenity-spewing mania. Players are foul-mouthed, hormonally overcharged and undereducated teenagers, and a racial divide splits the team down the middle. Camaraderie and professionalism are in short supply. "Nothing good happens after midnight. I mean that," warns the manager. A truer word was never spoken.McCarthy is a sort of omniscient narrator hovering over the locker room and the ballfield, not to mention the venues the players frequent on their off-hours. He notes fairly neutrally the ... moreallure of performance enhancing drugs and sexual hijinks. But he also writes with honesty about the poverty most guys are forced to accept, the loneliness of the road and the frustration and shame of not living up to your promise.While you can't feel that bad for McCarthy, who after his release went on to become a doctor, I did feel sorry for the guys for whom a pink slip meant the loss of any hope for a better life. And you better believe the book has me thinking about what kind of life I really want for my son!
review 2: This book was an extremely entertaining tale of a guy who gets drafted out of college and plays one year of minor league baseball. I couldn't believe how candid he was about life inside a minor league clubhouse, particularly with the stories about now-famous players (including Prince Fielder). Reminded me a lot of my high school baseball team but taken to the next level and even more juvenile. It was hilarious, and I highly recommend to baseball fans. less

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