Book Browse: Odd Man Out: 'A Year On The Mound With A Minor League Misfit' Matt McCarthy
- Author: Min-Q Kim
- Posted on: Wednesday September 16, 2009 at 11:00 AM
- Filed under: sports, books, odd man out, matt mccarthy, anaheim angels, provo angels, baseball, exclusive
As summer pasttimes go, my two favorites are watching baseball and reading by the pool. So it was with great delight that I spent the las few summer poolside reading sessions with Odd Man Out: A Year On The Mound With A Minor League Misfit by former Anaheim Angels minor league pitcher Matt McCarthy.
The book is a memoir of McCarthy's brief stint (one season, 2002) with the Angels' minor league franchise the Provo Angels. One part exposé, one part memoir, all parts entertaining, Odd Man Out gives the reader an indelible and vivid insight into the underbelly of the United State's favorite national pasttime: its participants - both wide-eyed newbies and disillusioned veterans and coaches - in all their vulgar, misogynistic, and insecure but overcompensating glory.
A Yale graduate, McCarthy refers more than once to the other players' fascination with his Ivy League pedigree, and how it immediately separates him from most of the other players - most of whom were drafted directly out of high school or Junior College. 'Misfit' is right. Picture mild-mannered Nick in the upside down world of Gatsby and you'd be on the right track.
The 'characters' in this book are all real ballplayers and coaches, which gives this book another dynamic layer. I recognized these names, which put me in an omnicient, god-like position as a reader and baseball fan. Reading about his run-ins with a young Joe Saunders, for example, are suddenly given weight, given my knowledge that Saunders would go on to superstardom in the Major Leagues, and is currently an All-Star pitcher for the Angels. In these pages, however, he is a kid with a talent turned prima-donna: no hero-worship ESPN veneer here. Chapter 4 ends with this venerable gem from McCarthy's minor league manager: "Go ugly early, gentlemen. No sense waitin' all night for the girl of your derams." I'll let you figure out the context.
The book highlights the mechanical underbelly of Baseball, a fiscal machine with its money-based and race-based hierarchy, and cruel faceless cogs: radar gun-wielding scouts, and slick-suited front office honchos, lording over their purebreds and livestock. Amidst all this, McCarthy manages to find poignance and humanity. Baseball humbles just about everyone at some point, we learn, and everyone has their flaws -- even the super-heroes that don boyhood walls (in fact, especially them) -- and perhaps that provides a modicum of Schadenfreude-laced comfort.
Similar to the books on investigate the back-room dealings on Wall Street or on Capitol Hill, this book shines a light into the locker rooms, offices, and psyches of Baseball's big players. Meanwhile, since the tone is easy and conversational, casual yet distinct - I raced through this book in three quick sittings.
Matt McCarthy pitching for the Provo Angels in 2002
His playing career over, Matt McCarthy went on to Harvard Medical School and is currently a first-year resident at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. Click here for an interview Matt did with USA Today a few months back. And check out his book Odd Man Out; if you're a baseball fan, it's an absolute must read.
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