The Bullpen Gospels: A Non-Prospect's Pursuit of the Major Leagues and the Meaning of Life by Dirk Hayhurst

Aug 07, 2011 Andrew Rosner added it

A fun and compelling read. Hayhurst writes about minor league baseball from such an interesting perspective that it's hard not to root for him. He's an intelligent and literate guy, but he also possesses a thoughtfulness that is rare among professional athletes. As his agent puts it, "You just used the words "fuck" and "Narnia" in the same sentence." To be sure, there's a lot of the usual male bonding stuff going on; lots of sex, lots of booze, and a seemingly endless supply of flatulence jokes...more

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Mar 17, 2013 Don rated it 4 of 5 stars

Do you like baseball? Did you read Jim Bouton's "Ball Four" when it was published in 1970, as I did when I was fourteen years old? If not, there is no need to read this review, nor this book.

There is nothing intellectually compelling about this book. It is lucid, erudite, sometimes rude, often irreverent and always, laugh-out-loud funny. It details the intimate struggles of a journey-man, minor league pitcher who had a cup of coffee in "The Show".

Imagine Jean Paul Sartre's mind, embedded in the...more

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Feb 23, 2013 Doug rated it 3 of 5 stars

I had somewhat ambivalent reactions to The Bullpen Gospels, but on the whole I was entertained. Hayhurst looks at baseball from the unusual perspective of a perennial minor leaguer. He's someone (this is my judgment, not his) without enough potential to get promoted rapidly to MLB status, but too potentially useful as a sort of understudy to bounce out of the system completely. Hayhurst also brings plenty of less unique Kid-With-Family-Issues to the table.

One thing that struck me throughout the...more

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Oct 24, 2012 Christopher Bashforth rated it 4 of 5 stars

I started watching baseball a couple of years because my brother-in-law liked the sport and it filled in the sports gap during the European football off-season and now I look forward to the start of the season as much as the football one. I had heard that American sports writing was of high quality so I decided to pickup this book when on holiday in the US last year. I liked this book, which is about a couple of years in the life of a minor league player and the author writes well. Before I read...more

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Mar 29, 2012 Richard rated it 3 of 5 stars

As we all know, sports in general and baseball in particular is both popular and remarkable because of their metaphor to life. This book is as much about life as it is about the author's and his teams' 2007 season in the California and Texas Leagues.

At first, Dirk Hayhurst comes off as a complete jerk as he displays his complete disrespect for his dysfunctional family. However, beginning in Chapter 4 (of 48 total... they are all pretty short), he starts to gain a more mature understanding of bot...more

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Nov 01, 2011 Ben rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The book, The Bullpen Gospels: The Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran, by Dirk Hayhurst is a biography to some extent about his time in the Minor Leagues for baseball for a long time and how things aren't as great as they are playing in the MLB. It mainly talks about how it can be different each day depending on how good you play. One day you could be friends with everyone on your team and having a great time and the next you're flying on a plane to a completely different team, city,...more The book, The Bullpen Gospels: The Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran, by Dirk Hayhurst is a biography to some extent about his time in the Minor Leagues for baseball for a long time and how things aren't as great as they are playing in the MLB. It mainly talks about how it can be different each day depending on how good you play. One day you could be friends with everyone on your team and having a great time and the next you're flying on a plane to a completely different team, city, and coach. This book depicts the life of the author, Dirk Hayhurst, and his struggle to support a side winding family, having to live with, his severely confused grandma, handling his alcoholic brother and dad, and trying to make it to the major league. There really aren't many main characters in the book proving the point you shouldn't make best friends in the minor leagues. There is his family with his mom and dad, brother, and grandma. His mom is the only one who understands him and his struggle. She is older but he never tells us her age. His dad is the kind of person who has no emotion except for anger. He is always going on about something and is never happy anymore. Dirk says in the middle of the book that his dad used to be the ideal father urging him to keep moving forward and never give up but one day when he was putting new shingles on the roof Dirk heard a loud crash and his dad was lying on the ground motionless. He became paralyzed and never seemed the same. He did make a recovery but his hands are almost useless causing a lot of his anger when he can't pick something up. Next is his brother whose name is never mentioned. He is and extreme alcoholic and always comes home drunk. He and his mom always fight the next morning and she often threatens to call the cops but never has the heart. Later in the book when Dirk is away she finally cracks and calls them. The last repetitive character is his confused grandma. She always wants to shoot squirrels that eat her bird feed with Dirk's pellet gun and he refuses. It seems that she hates him but it could just be she doesn't know any better.

I personally adored the book. It told me about things I never knew went on before all the media, TV shows, and newspapers. It is by far the best book I have ever read in my life and I will probably re-read it soon. It does swear a ton and has many sexual themes at times. If I looked in the book it would be hard to find a page that doesn't swear or talk about something that would be...frowned upon. Because of The Bullpen Gospels I probably will look for more books just like it that talk about all the behind the scenes stuff that goes on in sports before making millions of dollars every year. Hayhurst does a fantastic job of describing everything in depth and personal. In the prologue he says that everything described in the book, every story and mishap, were completely true except for a few changed names for the sake of the people whose names were changed.

This book would mainly appeal to sports fans or anyone who even watches baseball but I would recommend it to anyone who has a thirst for knowledge about how the minor leagues even work. Before I read The Bullpen Gospels I would definitely call myself uneducated in terms of minor league baseball. I have been to a game but didn't learn anything close to how much this book taught me about the whole system. Even if you despise baseball or competitive sports all together it is still a very funny and interesting book. I would not recommend it to anyone below seventh grade mostly because of intensely course language. It might also be a bit confusing because it is not really made for younger kids let alone kids at all. It is also kind of long and my version has pretty small text. Even on the back cover there are numerous amounts of quotes from major league players like Trevor Hoffman, the pitcher whom he revealed was his idle in the beginning of his minor league career. I am really lucky to have been able to read this book and I hope that more people can enjoy it in the future too.(less)

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Nov 14, 2010 Tommy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 11th-grade-1st-quarter

you always hear about the life of these major leagues, but no body hears about the life about minor leagues. this book bullpen gospel shows us a life of a veteran minor Leger.

this book shows us about a minor league baseball players life. he was not good enough to play major league baseball but he was still good enough to get paid. if you get paid to play baseball you must be soooooooo gooooood. to even play in the low single A or even independent baseball. but this shows us how in the off seaso...more

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May 21, 2010 Folboteur rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Folboteur by: Keith Olbermann

Shelves: autobiography, philosophy

I idolized different "heroes" than Dirk Hayhurst growing up, and yet it became clear midway through this 340 page romp of a book that he and I were experiencing the same lessons in life. Heroes on pedestals are merely people. A glamorous career will not shield you from dealing with life. What you DO with the tools you're given is more important than the tools themselves. Father/Son relationships are... uh... challenging.

It is this expression of universal experience, cloaked in the rags of a roug...more I idolized different "heroes" than Dirk Hayhurst growing up, and yet it became clear midway through this 340 page romp of a book that he and I were experiencing the same lessons in life. Heroes on pedestals are merely people. A glamorous career will not shield you from dealing with life. What you DO with the tools you're given is more important than the tools themselves. Father/Son relationships are... uh... challenging.

It is this expression of universal experience, cloaked in the rags of a rough and tumble personal life and the difficulties and disillusionment of seeing the guts of a supposedly-glamorous career as a Pro Baseball Player that makes "Bullpen Gospels" the gem it is.

As an erstwhile/putative/wannabe writer myself, I have often said "the hardest things about writing is to let yourself be emotionally naked so the truth can spill onto the page." Hayhurst achieves this in his writing, and it parallels how he achieves the same things in the arc of his life and performance in baseball. I can't help but believe that this master-stroke of writing is not a spill-over effect of the personal discoveries he made as a pitcher struggling to find out what baseball meant to him, who he was in the world, and why his heroes were suddenly mortal.

But in-between bouts of self-doubt, deep philosophical rumination, and an attempt to "inculcate his mantra" (it's funny in context) Hayhurst weaves a rip-roaring series of hilarious anecdotes that expose us to the realities of minor-league baseball, and a fair share of its participants genitals and gas problems. I teared up a number of times in the appropriate "emotional" moments of the story, but cried no harder than when laughing out loud over the story of how an "intellectually challenged" club-house assistant(annually) rooked the entire team into funding his loss of virginity.

Does everything wrap up too neatly? No one said this book is a straight line autobiography, and the denouement provided by Hayhurst (true or not) is one of the most well-written, compelling and touching chapters of a book I have ever read. It has some great lessons on overcoming self-doubt, and will no doubt one day be turned into a "classic" movie built around father/son struggles, a'la "Field of Dreams." I did not put the book down, and finished it in about 7 hours. A wonderful read.(less)

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Mar 31, 2010 Mark Ahrens rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of the greatest baseball books of modern times hit North America's books stores this week. Shockingly, it was written by a guy who was more interested in growing up to be Trevor Hoffman, not Peter Gammons. Those aren't my words. They are the opening sentences of ESPN baseball analyst Jayson Stark's review of The Bullpen Gospels by Dirk Hayhurst.

The book is receiving rave reviews not only for its baseball-related content, but also for Hayhurst's pained, personal story. But don't be confused....more One of the greatest baseball books of modern times hit North America's books stores this week. Shockingly, it was written by a guy who was more interested in growing up to be Trevor Hoffman, not Peter Gammons. Those aren't my words. They are the opening sentences of ESPN baseball analyst Jayson Stark's review of The Bullpen Gospels by Dirk Hayhurst.

The book is receiving rave reviews not only for its baseball-related content, but also for Hayhurst's pained, personal story. But don't be confused. This story is neither an over-the-top expose on today's players, nor a "aw shucks" feel-good tale. In fact, it is not easy to put this book into a single category.

Hayhurst use pseudonyms and composite characters to protect his teammates' identifies. This is raw stuff, some times cringe-worthy, sophomorphic fun, other times cringe-worthy pain, delivered like an automatic machine gun by a gifted writer. A particular passage about an octopus copulating a bagpipe had me laughing so hard I couldn't catch my breath.

Bullpen is compelling because of the style, or "voice" with which it is written. Hayhurst's style is disarmingly conversatinal and self-deprecating; exposing the reader to the lighter side of baseball, but also to his inner most fears and demons. He does so in a manner that makes you feel like you are in the room with him and his teammates shooting the breeze. The style draws you in, his stories are intoxicating, and the result is a spellbinding read.

The grit and realism starts right from the prologue.

"I was the team's long relief man. A nonglorious pitching role designed to protect priority pitchers. If the starting pitcher broke down or the game got out of control, I came in to clean up so the bullpen wasn't exhausted. Despite feel-good semantics supplied by the organization, my main job was mopping up lost causes. Why waste a talented pitcher when there was a perfectly useless guy for the job? I could pitch five innings in a blowout or face one batter in the seventeenth inning. Put it this way: if I could have done any other role successfully, I wouldn't have been the long man."

Usually, when I review a book, I take notes to remind myself of things I might want to weave into the review. That approach was hopeless with this book. There are far too many memorable moments to keep track of. Below is an excerpt of a comparatively tame episode amongst the many:

"As we made our way to the pen, fans splashed against the stadium's fenceing, begging us for autographs. We signed everything from hats and programs to ticket stubs and sandwich wrappers. It always boggles my mind how fans will fight all over themselves at a chance to get one of our names scribbled on their souvenirs. If only they knew what we were under these jerseys. Just hours before the game, the team debated the question of when a protein shake should be consumed--before or after sex? During, we decided, if you have a hand free."

Hayhurst is currently with the Toronto Blue Jay organization, but on injured reserve. He has been in the bigs with both San Diego and Toronto after a 4-year up and down minor league career bouncing between A, AA, and AAA.

Mark Ahrens
www.booksonbaseball.com (less)

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Aug 31, 2012 Kristen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: baseball, non-fiction

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.

I was charmed by Hayhurst's turn of ph...more

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May 01, 2011 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

For some reason I am obsessed with minor league baseball. Definitely a weird thing for a chick to be into (especially a married chick who isn’t a “cleat-chaser.”) Something about the grind of it, the struggle, the chance to make it big (for a very few) is appealing to me, not to mention game after game in small ballparks in the middle of nowhere. I guess, unlike the NFL, you can be drafted and slog around the minors for so many years, forever even. It takes a real dedication to keep going becaus...more For some reason I am obsessed with minor league baseball. Definitely a weird thing for a chick to be into (especially a married chick who isn’t a “cleat-chaser.”) Something about the grind of it, the struggle, the chance to make it big (for a very few) is appealing to me, not to mention game after game in small ballparks in the middle of nowhere. I guess, unlike the NFL, you can be drafted and slog around the minors for so many years, forever even. It takes a real dedication to keep going because most players make less than a McDonald’s cashier.

Anyway, I wondered if there was a memoir about the minor leagues so I went on Amazon, searched “minor league baseball” and voila! I came across this bestselling, impressively blurbed memoir by Dirk Hayhurst. Once I started the book I was thrilled to learn not only was it the well-written minor league memoir I was looking for but Dirk Hayhurst was in the farm system for my beloved Padres! I loved learning more about High-A and AA life, not to mention guest appearances by some of my favorites: Chase Headley, Will Venable, and the legendary Trevor Hoffman. Sorry, Hayhurst, your name didn’t really ring a bell despite my Friars-obsession. I think you knew that, though.

The writing is funny and quick and the author seems like the proverbial “good guy” at least amongst the frat-like behavior of his compatriots. Granted, he wrote the book so was free to paint himself in a certain light. However, I am sure there are very few (if any) minor leaguers who don’t drink and are waiting until marriage for sex. Some parts of the book were nail-biting (was he going to get cut at AA spring training?) and I was very careful not to Google the author because I didn’t want to know how it turned out. This book was definitely was gritty as I expected. It is very clear that minor league baseball is just one long, extended high school locker room and some of the gross antics got a little old after awhile. But, it was to be expected. All in, an interesting tale of life in the Minors. Thoroughly enjoyed this.(less)

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Apr 04, 2010 Greg rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

From http://weeksnotice.blogspot.com/2010/...

If you like baseball, then you have to read Dirk Hayhurst's The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran (2010). It is not airy bow-tie George Will baseball, but nitty gritty Jim Bouton stuff. I have rarely laughed out loud as much as I did reading this book. Yet for all the raunchy parts (shared nudity and farting are important elements of a baseball career) Hayhurst thinks very deeply and intelligently about what it means to be...more From http://weeksnotice.blogspot.com/2010/...

If you like baseball, then you have to read Dirk Hayhurst's The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran (2010). It is not airy bow-tie George Will baseball, but nitty gritty Jim Bouton stuff. I have rarely laughed out loud as much as I did reading this book. Yet for all the raunchy parts (shared nudity and farting are important elements of a baseball career) Hayhurst thinks very deeply and intelligently about what it means to be a baseball player, and what it's worth.

Hayhurst (who, sadly enough, will miss this season with an injury) was in the minors when he decided to write a book about the 2007 season. Eventually he made his way to the Padres (and later to the Blue Jays) but the book focuses on the details of spring training, A ball, and Double A. Importantly, the point of the book is not just gross details, but how players find meaning in the game--how they socialize, connect with their own families, connect with communities, and even figure themselves out. Hayhurst is a reliever and therefore spends a lot of time doing mostly nothing in the bullpen. The pitchers get constantly heckled and pestered for baseballs, which they can't hand out, but every so often they get a situation like a boy with cancer who gets the time of his life by sitting in the bullpen for two innings. Hayhurst chronicles the heckling (and counter-heckling) in a hilarious way, then shifts gears to think about how just being in the uniform can make a child's eyes light up.

Toward the end, Hayhurst spends time talking to Trevor Hoffman about baseball, and says the following:

Well, baseball is a lot of things, but it's not everything. It can't make your brother sober. It can't make your family stop fighting. It can't make peace or win wars or cure cancer. It makes or breaks a lot of people, like many jobs where the folks who do it find their identity. I don't know if it should be as valuable as it is, or maybe baseball is valuable, and we players just don't use it the right way. I guess that's what I want to figure out in this book (p. 336).

Well said. And you also learn that players must wear a cup at all times or get fined, because otherwise, like Hayhurst, they may get nailed with a line drive and end up with a baseball seam mark on their testicles. This book really has it all. (less)

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Jan 19, 2013 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction, baseball

I watch a whole heck of a lot of baseball games, and I am, of course, aware that all the players are people outside the context of being baseball players, but I don't think about it too much. This book is a reminder that I probably don't want to know those people, but good grief, are they hilarious in their offensive habits.

Hayhurst is a nobody grinding his way up through the minor leagues. The narrative - which is his true story, though I think most all of the names are changed or composite cha...more I watch a whole heck of a lot of baseball games, and I am, of course, aware that all the players are people outside the context of being baseball players, but I don't think about it too much. This book is a reminder that I probably don't want to know those people, but good grief, are they hilarious in their offensive habits.

Hayhurst is a nobody grinding his way up through the minor leagues. The narrative - which is his true story, though I think most all of the names are changed or composite characters used - follows his 2007 season, wherein he goes through quite a bit of an existential crisis as he struggles and reaches the point where it may be time to give up on baseball. In fact, he finds himself in the big leagues in 2008, but that's not the point of the story.

In Hayhurst's own words, his book is about what baseball isn't. The story is not a complex one, but it is his, and he approaches it with the insight and thoughtfulness that one doesn't expect from an athlete. He is probably unusual in having the gift of being able to write about this - there doesn't seem to be any reason to believe it was ghost-written or something, because he's consistently a bit of an outcast for being the intellectual sort of type who's above it all. His agent points this out, noting an instance where Hayhurst is obviously different from other baseball players on the basis of using fuck and Narnia in the same sentence.

He is part of the fray and yet he is above the fray, and over the course of this year he deals with demons from his own family as well as the Baseball Reaper, to come to some sort of triumph, which is not to say he became one of the best baseball players of all time, but he does seem to have become the best baseball player that he could be.

I actually would have liked if there was a bit more to the story. Some things that seem important are glossed over; for instance, as he harps on the beats where his season's success dovetailed into his regular life, he goes right past when he meets his future wife. Maybe he was a little embarrassed by it, since it began on the Internet. I am not really sure, but I think it would have added something to the story if he was also on the journey where he gets the girl (which he does) at the same time that he rebounds from nearly washing out of high-A into becoming a part of the AA championship team.

Oh, and the thing about this book: it's freaking hilarious. The raunchy and debauched stories that he relates from his minor league teammates are sexist, homophobic, and occasionally gross for more normal reasons. Immature frat boy pranks rule the day. But it's still funny, and Hayhurst's detached observations of these are part of the fun. Inside looks at the Kangaroo Court are a particular treat.(less)

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May 06, 2010 jeremy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: baseball, memoir-bio

dirk hayhurst may well be the antithesis of the stereotypical athlete, and his book, the bullpen gospels, is unlike any other sports memoir of late. chronicling the uncertain and often frustrating life of a professional ballplayer as he ascends and descends the minor league ranks, the bullpen gospels is more than just another tale of big league aspirations. already crowned as one of the finest baseball books ever written, hayhurst's autobiography really does live up to all the hype.

the story is...more dirk hayhurst may well be the antithesis of the stereotypical athlete, and his book, the bullpen gospels, is unlike any other sports memoir of late. chronicling the uncertain and often frustrating life of a professional ballplayer as he ascends and descends the minor league ranks, the bullpen gospels is more than just another tale of big league aspirations. already crowned as one of the finest baseball books ever written, hayhurst's autobiography really does live up to all the hype.

the story is a personal one, and nowhere does hayhurst veer into the realm of gossip. easily the funniest book i have read in years, the bullpen gospels is also tragic, poignant, touching, and hopeful. with remarkable candor and no small amount of self-deprecation, hayhurst humbly and entertainingly conveys his tale. as probably one of the only teetotaling virgins ever to toe the rubber, hayhurst's outlook on both baseball and life are far from what one would expect of the average athlete. troubled by a tumultuous home life and plagued by doubts about his stalling career, hayhurst somehow maintains both tenacity and a sense of humor.

save for the absolutely wretched cover (pinstripes, really? as a padre? or a blue jay?), the bullpen gospels is an exceptional work. hayhurst has already announced plans for another book, and if his on-field talent can keep pace with his writing, he ought to be moonlighting as an author for some time to come. lots of well-worn adjectives could be employed to describe how wonderful the bullpen gospels really is, but it's the combination of humor, humility, and humanity that make it one of the year's great reads.

(for the oregon reader, it should be noted that mr. hayhurst used to play for our own beloved portland beavers, where he was honored as the 2008 community player of the year. i saw him pitch in middle relief during a game in may of that year, against the oklahoma red hawks. according to my trusty scorebook, he pitched two innings, allowed one earned run, gave up two hits, walked none, and struck out two).

baseball doesn't have any intrinsic power. it only has what people give to it. for some, the man who plays is a superhero, and he can do great things. for some, the man who plays is an obstacle who must get out of the way. is baseball as important as food, knowledge, care, or a dry pair of boots? is it as important as some of the things that pass by us in everyday life? i don't think so. can it inspire, motivate, and call us to something greater than ourselves? absolutely. the burden of the player isn't to achieve greatness, but to give the feeling of it to everyone he encounters. it was wrong of me even to try to separate life and the game. they were intertwined, meant to be, one affecting the other, one teaching the other, even when the mixture occasionally blows up. it takes a real person, one who understands himself, to use the tool of baseball for something good. for that person, as long as he has a jersey on his back, he has a chance.(less)

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Sep 19, 2010 Twobusy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Multiple reviews of this non-fictional take on a year in the life of a borderline minor league pitcher have claimed that it's the best baseball book since Bouton's legendary Ball Four. Which isn't true, and isn't really a fair comparison — Bouton's roman a clef was a staggeringly well-written glimpse behind the curtain of MLB that absolutely rocked the baseball establishment.. and Hayhurst's book simply can't stand up to that comparison. That said... it's pretty good. Especially the second half...more

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Apr 11, 2010 Christina rated it 5 of 5 stars

As a lifelong fan of baseball, and a Padres fan for the past 20 years, I would have picked this book up on my own I am sure. However, because it came so highly praised by Keith Olbermann and Bob Costas, I made the impulse decision when Keith first wrote about it to put it on pre-order at Amazon. So I was breaking my plan for this year of reading only books in my existing pile and put this one right at the front of the line when it arrived last week.

Rarely will a book meet the expectations of su...more As a lifelong fan of baseball, and a Padres fan for the past 20 years, I would have picked this book up on my own I am sure. However, because it came so highly praised by Keith Olbermann and Bob Costas, I made the impulse decision when Keith first wrote about it to put it on pre-order at Amazon. So I was breaking my plan for this year of reading only books in my existing pile and put this one right at the front of the line when it arrived last week.

Rarely will a book meet the expectations of such early reviews, but this one, for me at least surpassed them.

I finished it just now and was, quite literally, crying at the end. In fact, the ending immediately flashed me to the ending of Field of Dreams (yeah, I cry like a baby at that one every damn time too). In some ways I think this is a book much like that movie. Baseball is prominent of course, but at it's heart, this is not *really* a baseball book. Sure, there are often hysterical stories about minor league team antics. But there are very few in the field, pitch by pitch descriptions of games. It's much more about the life and interactions that go on before and after game time. It's *really* about how the author struggles with finding himself and his place in life outside the lines of a baseball diamond. How he views himself when the uniform is not on - and how the man in the uniform can best use the little bit of notoriety that being a professional baseball player gives him. I particularly love how he went into the game with a set of personal rules that he did not break. The reasons behind those rules showed a wisdom and self awareness that he clearly didn't realize he had, but which crop up throughout the book.

On a personal note this was probably even more fun for me to read since it was about the farm teams for my home team and I've always kept an eye on our prospects at all levels. The Lake Elsinore Storm are just up the freeway & I remember well the 2007 championship run of the Texas League Missions. I remember the author when he made his major league debut because we had a lot of fun saying "Hay-who?" when he was called up. Hey, it was a BAD year for the Padres & by then the fans were looking for any reason to laugh or we would cry! Mostly I hold a special place in my heart for #51 on the Padres not because of his accomplishments on the mound, but because of what I have always known him to be around town as someone who lives in my community. Without spoiling anything for my Padres friends who I know will read this book, let's just say that Hoffy again proves himself to be a Hall of Famer in the game of life. (less)

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Apr 10, 2012 Bennett Gavrish rated it 2 of 5 stars

Grade: D

L/C Ratio: 10/90
(This means I estimate the author devoted 10% of his effort to creating a literary work of art and 90% of his effort to creating a commercial bestseller.)

Thematic Breakdown:
60% - Baseball
30% - Shenanigans
10% - Dysfunctional family

In search of something to get me in the mood for Opening Day, I picked up Hayhurst's 2010 baseball memoir, which revolves around his time in the lower levels of the San Diego Padres minor league system. I've been away from baseball nonfiction fo...more

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Jun 08, 2010 Ken rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

The Bullpen Gospels tells the story of a 2007 season in the minor leagues as the author both details the often mundane day-to-day existence of the season and questions his future in the game.

I enjoyed this text very much, and it is a perfect breezy summer read for baseball fans. Hayhurst provides of view of minor-league life that is difficult, often funny, and sometimes even poignant. Much of the humor in the book comes from off-color jokes and pranks, and the New York Times review called the bo...more

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Apr 28, 2010 Catherine rated it 3 of 5 stars

I purchased this book after reading several glowing reviews. I hoped that Hayhurst would expose a behind-the-scenes look into the minor league experience with honesty and intelligence. Unfortunately, sad to say, I was disappointed.

There was far too much sophomoric, rowdy behavior, complete with all of the expected predictable elements including downloading porn from the Internet, drunken behavior and fart jokes. Really guys? Has anybody really not already heard about these worn-out juvenile she...more

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Oct 17, 2011 Maya rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a really wonderful read for me- particularly at this moment in my life and career. I am sure this book does not sing the same to folks who do not find their identity in their work, and whose industry is not fiercely competitive. Hayhurst describes his days and struggles with loving his work, regardless of it loving him back, and figuring out how to use that work and love for something meaningful.

The storytelling definitely has a Bull Durham flavor to it. Mostly this is super enjoyable,...more

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Dec 06, 2010 Mary rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was pleased to read this, after hearing the author speak - he does have enormous charm, is smart and smart about himself, and certainly will have a real life after baseball. There is quite a contrast here, the author who came from much more difficult circumstances than the rest of us, with an invalid father and mean drunk brother, and a light style of writing, to capture the humor in being in the minor leagues, on the team, and on the road. There are times when I wish he had not tried to be fu...more

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Jun 01, 2010 Mary McCoy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Funny, raunchy, and genuinely moving. Hayhurst recounts the grueling life of minor leaguers who endure brutal travel, poverty wages, and cramped quarters for the chance to wear the jersey another day and the hope of being called up.

As the book begins, Hayhurst is thinking about quitting baseball altogether. The 2007 season starts with bitter disappointment, but he has little to go home to (during the off-season he chooses to sleep on an air mattress in his hilariously mean grandmother's sewing r...more

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Jul 28, 2010 Tim Beck rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Erick Beiger

Shelves: 2010

there's always been something magical about baseball. i'll admit, i couldn't care less about the major league game these days - but the lure of the game and all that goes with it - the sights, sounds and feel of real live game being played in front of you (at any level, mind you) is something special.

thus i was drawn to The Bullpen Gospels for the same reason i've been drawn to Field of Dreams and The Natural. The same reason i always loved listening to my dad tell stories of Lou Boudreau and t...more

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Sep 03, 2011 Scott Breslove rated it 5 of 5 stars

Holy hell, Dirk is one hell of a writer. I really feel appreciative that I had a chance to sit down with him at the team hotel in Scranton when he was pitching with the Durham Bulls. He is an amazing, one of a kind guy. I just really wish I had read the book before I talked with him. After reading the book, you forget that this guy is only 30yrs old. His life experiences have really given him the insight and wisdom I can only compare to those old wise men that you see in movies, you know, where...more

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Mar 18, 2011 Alex rated it 4 of 5 stars

The book started out with a bunch of fun stories about life as a minor league baseball player. There was more swearing than I would normally care to read, but I don't doubt that a baseball clubhouse hears more of that than an office workplace would, for example.

The true greatness of this book isn't in the stories, though; we get to see Dirk evolve through his own eyes. A series of minor epiphanies led him to an even bigger one - that baseball doesn't have to be about putting people on pedestals,...more

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May 29, 2012 Craig Pittman rated it 2 of 5 stars

I've read a lot of baseball books, most of them about major leaguers, a few of them autobiographies. I can only recall one other memoir about life in the minors: "A False Spring" by Pat Jordan, a melancholy masterpiece. This book doesn't touch that one, and covers some of the same ground. The beginning is slow, brutal going, as Hayhurst chronicles his abysmal upbringing and how it spurred him to stick with baseball even in the face of failure. Then he at last takes the reader into the team setti...more

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Jun 14, 2010 Heather C. rated it 4 of 5 stars

One of the reviews of this book comments that it feels like Holden Caulfield wrote about being in the minor league baseball system. It's true. Dirk Hayhurst, currently a relief pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays, chronicles a year in the minor leagues, which isn't at all glamorous or fun. He manages to keep a double-sided perspective--he's in the trenches, but he's perhaps a more thoughtful and philosophical guy than your average pro athlete. If you're looking for a Hoosiers or Remember the Titan...more

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Aug 31, 2011 William Becque rated it 5 of 5 stars

Hayhurst wrote one of the most engaging, down right funny books about life as a minor league baseball player written thus far. Of course, in a sport where most of the athletes are borderline illiterate ass-hats clinging to a chance to brag about their past glories(see: Jose Canseco's "Juiced")Hayhurst is honest about the mind-fuck that pitching for a shot at the big league dream truly is. The locker room humor that he sprinkles throughout the book is my favorite part, and truly my only complaint...more

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Jul 09, 2010 Dick rated it 3 of 5 stars

Great summer read for baseball fans. Story line about a pitcher that lived most of his life in the minors - with a couple of stints in the "Big Show." The story line is full of inside stuff - what it is like to play in them minors - bus rides, bad food,lousy hotels/motels, fans taunting you, and other such insights. Fun read, but be forwarned, the language is very base and the observations of women is . . . well, about what you would expect from a bunch of single men on the road and "hunting". I...more

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Jan 29, 2011 Ty rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is book was written by a current ballplayer covering 1 year of his career in the minors. The typical stories of whacky behavior on the road and groupies and such are pretty funny, but the book is also almost painfully honest about the emotional challenges of the author, dealing with a rough childhood, broken family and a career in limbo. The author writes surprisingly well, although the prose gets a bit over the top sometimes. This was one of the best baseball books i have read in a long ti...more

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title link	preview: The Bullpen Gospels: A Non-Prospect's Pursuit of the Major Leagues and the Meaning of Life
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The Bullpen Gospels: A Non-Prospect's Pursuit of the Major Leagues and the Meaning of Life

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