The Bullpen Gospels: A Non-Prospect's Pursuit of the Major Leagues and the Meaning of Life by Dirk HayhurstMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
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 the like from the '48 Indians World Championship team.
Baseball is filled with stories... good stories... like no other sport. The Bullpen Gospels is author Dirk Hayhurst's chronicle of his 2007 season in the minor leagues. Hayhurst - pitcher by day, author by night - seems more comfortable in the role of author. his writings of his challenges pitching - working to overcome failure to reach his major league dream are compelling because of his honesty. there is nothing glorious about minor league baseball - yet, Hayhurst reminds us that reaching for one's dreams is nothing to be disappointed in - even if he learned that the hard way.
this is more than a book about baseball. it is a book about life... a baseball players life... with struggles to make it - fears of being cut, rejected, forgotten. it's a book about hope - hope to mend a broken family, to make a father proud and to 'wow' the Brass of the organization.
it's fun. crazy. zany. awkward. compelling. it fits in with the tradition of baseball - and the lure that goes with that.
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