Product Description

A Season on the Mound with Minor League Baseball’s Most Unlikely Pitcher

Matt McCarthy never expected to get drafted by a Major League Baseball team. A molecular biophysics major at Yale, he was a decent left-handed starter for a dismal college team. But good southpaws are hard to find, and when the Anaheim Angels selected him in the twenty-first round of the 2002 draft, McCarthy jumped at the chance to live every boy’s dream.

In Odd Man Out, McCarthy tells the captivating and hilarious story of his year with the Provo Angels, Anaheim’s Class A minor league affiliate in the heart of Mormon country. He quickly discovers the dirty truths of the minors: the Americans and Dominicans don’t speak to each other, the allure of steroids is ever present, and everyone puts his own stats ahead of the team’s success. With a brilliant eye for baseball’s character, McCarthy takes readers through the ups and downs of an antic, grueling season filled with cross-country road trips, bizarre rivalries, and players competing with cutthroat intensity for the ultimate prize—a call up to the majors.

In the spirit of Ball Four, McCarthy recounts inside-the-locker-room tales of teammates who would go on to stardom, including Bobby Jenks, Joe Saunders, and Ervin Santana. Odd Man Out is one of the great books about baseball life, capturing with rare perfection the gritty essence of our national pastime as it is played outside the spotlight.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19734 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780670020706
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
While his professional baseball career lasted for just one summer, McCarthy still compiled enough incidents and anecdotes to make for an eye-opening read about the wildly unpredictable life of a minor-league ballplayer. Drafted in 2002 by the Anaheim Angels, the Yale-educated left-hander was eventually shipped off to the Angels rookie team in Provo, Utah, where he had to not only adjust to the grueling schedule of a professional athlete but also to the culture of a heavily Mormon town. McCarthy shatters the idea of a glamorous lifestyle in the minor leagues—from the agonizingly long bus rides to the never-ending meals in chain restaurants and minuscule paychecks. He also portrays the unflattering aspects of the game, be it the divide between the American and Hispanic players, or the constant inner struggle on whether to take performance-enhancing drugs. But there are plenty of humorous (and sometimes obscene) stories sprinkled in. All the while, McCarthy writes of his own personal struggles as a pitcher and the constant physical and mental strain he endured to keep alive the dream of one day making it to the major leagues. While the book sometimes reads like a journal (which he kept throughout the summer), McCarthy can be an effective storyteller. Its a pull-no-punches work that will give many baseball fans a glimpse into a part of baseball not seen on ESPNs SportsCenter. (Feb.)
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From Booklist
Much as Jim Bouton recorded life as a major leaguer with the 1969 Seattle Pilots in his classic Ball Four, so Matt McCarthy shares his life as a minor leaguer with the 2002 Los Angeles Angels’ Class A farm team in Provo, Utah. If McCarthy lacks Bouton’s immortal cast of characters, or his singular deadpan wit, he proves a sure-handed reporter in revealing the daily grind of a season, the unabashed racism among players (all Hispanics are simply called Dominicans by their white teammates), the lousy pay and living conditions, and the callous nature of this most zero-sum of professions. Baseball fans will likely recognize Joe Saunders, Bobby Jenks, and Prince Fielder—bona fide major-league stars who were teammates or competitors of the author. McCarthy’s professional baseball career might be forgettable but this account is not. --Alan Moores

Review
“Twenty years after the release of Bull Durham, the ultimate movie about the minor leagues, we now have Matt McCarthy’s Odd Man Out, the ultimate minor league memoir. If you want insight, irreverence, honesty and even a healthy dose of political incorrectness—not to mention an invaluable look at the state of the national pastime—McCarthy delivers. As a pitcher, he might have been a minor leaguer; as a memoirist, McCarthy’s an all-star. Odd Man Out is the best baseball book since Moneyball.”
—Jeremy Schaap, author of Cinderella Man: James J. Braddock, Max Baer and the Greatest Upset in Boxing History

“So this is what it’s really like to live every boy’s dream of getting drafted by a big-league team! I don’t know a single baseball fan who will be able to resist Matt McCarthy’s portrait of his hilariously grim—and yet somehow enviable—tour in the minor leagues. Part Bull Durham, part Ball Four, Odd Man Out is simply the best baseball book I’ve read in years.”
—Jonathan Mahler, author of Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning

“For an odd man out, Matt McCarthy is also the consummate insider. This honest account of life in the minors is equal parts rollicking travelogue, cultural criticism, and coming- of-age story. If McCarthy’s pitching abilities were as accurate and strong as his storytelling talent, he’d be in The Show.”
—L. Jon Wertheim, senior writer, Sports Illustrated, and author of Blood in the Cage

“Matt McCarthy has written something here that will make you laugh a lot and, even more, bring you closer to the game. It's a terrific book, and a lot of fun.”
—Joe Posnanski, author of The Soul of Baseball: A Trip Through Buck O’Neill’s America

“Matt McCarthy has pitched a gem: a decidedly non-dreamy-eyed look at young ballplayers in the low minors who dream of making it to the major league. Full of characters and curveballs, Odd Man Out should find a place on the shelf next to Pat Jordan’s A False Spring—both tell it like it is.”
—Jim Collins, author of The Last Best League

Customer Reviews

Ivy Leaguer Meets Low Level Minor Leaguers
This is a inside look at what it's like for an Ivy League graduate to try to blend in as one of the boys in a rookie league in the low minors in Mormon country. His teammates ranged from bonus babies to fringe draft choices. More than a few eventually made it to The Show. I got a kick out of Matt McCarthy's having to dumb himself down to be accepted, while maintaining his admittedly Yale-based superiority about religion and academics. He really puts you inside the clubhouse and on the team bus. The off-the-field adventures are hilarious.

McCarthy has come in for criticism from his team's veteran manager and some of the players who he describes have said they were not even on the same team with him that season. Even if some facts have been lost in the four or so years since he played, or names have been changed, this book is easy to read and very accurately captures the flavor of what it's like to try to make it to the majors. George Will could experience vicariously what he never would come close to in real life.

Great minor league baseball narrative
A great book for any baseball fan or any parent out there who has a child dreaming of one day playing ball in the majors. McCarthy's minor league experiences are probably much like those of thousands of other guys who never reached their ultimate goal. But his ability as a storyteller makes them very noteworthy. The book is funny, candid and self-deprecating. And knowing throughout it that the author had a great future outside of the game made it much easier to read about his struggles.

Definitely Not Another "Ball Four"
I purchased "Odd Man Out" in the hopes that the book would be a combination of two of my favorite baseball books, "A False Spring" by Pat Jordan and "Ball Four" by Jim Bouton. Unfortunately, this book was very underwhelming. While entertaining and interesting, I feel there was so much potential in this book that wasn't realized.

I expected the book to revolve around the author's struggle to fit in the minor leagues and his own personal reflection as to why he ultimately did not succeed in advancing his career. Instead, I felt the author was very condescending towards his other teammates. He paints the picture of being an outcast from his other teammates because he graduated from Yale; however, he points out numerous times throughout the book that he has an Ivy League degree to fall back on if baseball doesn't work out. He does this after taking offense to his teammates brigning his Ivy League education up time and time again. I also felt that he also went out of his way to portray his fellow American players as racist, un-educated, immature individuals while continually showing sympathy towards the treatment of the Dominican players on the team. However, throughout the book, he never details any attempts on his own behalf to interact with the entire group or even any attempt to stick up for any of the Dominicans when given the opportunity.

I expected a memoir that was much more reflective as to his own personal struggles as opposed to short-comings of his teammates.

While I am critical of the author's account of his own personal experience, the stories he detailed were interesting. He was put into a unique position and his insight into the day-to-day life of a rookie in the minor leagues was very interesting....just not compelling.