- ISBN13: 9780806531434
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
“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 ”There are great truths within, of the kind usually unspoken. And as he expresses them, Dirk Hayhurst describes himself as ‘a real person who moonlights as a baseball player.’ In much the same manner, while The Bullpen Gospels chronicles how all of us face the impact when we learn reality is both far meaner and far richer than our dreams–it also moonlights as one of the best baseball books ever written.”–Keith Olbermann ”A bit of Jim Bouton, a bit of Jim Brosnan, a bit of Pat Jordan, a bit of crash Davis, and a whole lot of Dirk Hayhurst. Often hilarious,… More >>
The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran
Comments
I was anxious to read this book after the incredible hype from Keith Olbermann. Now, having read the book and the reviews which precede me on Amazon, I am compelled to write to say that my copy of the book apparently didn’t come with the Kool-Aid. If you know anything about professional baseball, Bullpen Gospels didn’t enlighten in any way. Yes, the minor leagues are low-budget operations populated by players who are chasing a dream and fighting disappointment. You know that from watching Bull Durham. Because the author changed the names of his teammates and coaches, there is no insight into anyone in this string of anecdotes. Frankly, unless you are a member of Dirk Hayhurst’s family or a teammate who wants to guess which made up character is modeled after him, I can’t think of a reason to buy this book.
Rating: 2 / 5
Honestly people the entire book is moronic. I quit at the halfway point and wish I could get a refund.
How is it that a bunch of grown men, acting like boys, is entertaining and good writing? My 12 year old nephew has more class.
The bus scene and the kangaroo court is just ridiculous. Obviouly, their time would be better spent with extra practice hours.
Rating: 1 / 5
What’s going on? The Kindle version is MORE expensive than the paperback and ships later??? Zero printing costs, zero delivery costs, was in electronic format before a single page was printed. This is seriously brain dead.
Rating: 5 / 5
I’ll be honest. I haven’t read the book yet, but I am sure I won’t be disappointed. His was one of the best interviews I’ve heard on NPR (Tom Ashbrook On Point, see author’s website for podcast).
His blog is great. The signing of the ball for the small boy with liver cancer brought tears to my eyes. And not just because it was touching, it was because he framed the situation in the larger one of how fans are omnipresent, they always demand more, and how you learn to ignore them. And that is framed within commentary on human nature of how ball players and by extension, other public figures, become larger than life and really shouldn’t be. Here is the link to that entry: [...]
Dirk has opened a window on the macho world of sports, much like some brave bloggers have done with the military. And he has been harshly criticized for it, but we are all that much richer.
I hope to see more from Dirk, not just baseball writing, but on other topics in the future.
Rating: 5 / 5
Having listened to Keith Olbermann on “Countdown” extol the virtues and delights of this book, I bought it. That’s $9.99 and 5 hours of my time I’ll never get back although I did e-mail Olbermann to ask him to refund my money. There is no refund for my time, however. I am writing to tell you to save both your money and your time. This book, while it starts out fairly amusing, degenerates into what I would term as typical male adolescent humor as it focuses almost entirely on crude bathroom humor and the everlasting and pointless discussions about sex, sexual fantasies, male genitalia, and attempts to conquer hot babes, no matter how tasteless the quest. There were some moments of salvation near the end when the author was dealing with his father and alcoholic brother, but those fleeting glimpses of humanity did not redeem the otherwise vain exercise in recounting a boring and sad autobiography. I suppose men might like this book a lot more than I did, and I won’t even try to explain the differences in the sexes as it pertains to writing about sports experiences. It will be a long time before I’ll be dumb enough to bite on another book having to do with baseball if this missive is truly what the sport is all about.
Rating: 1 / 5