Review of "Odd Man Out: A Year On the Mound With A Minor League Misfit," by Matt McCarthy

 Review of

Odd Man Out: A Year On the Mound With A Minor League Misfit, by Matt McCarthy, ISBN 9780670020706

Five out of five stars

Odd, but not too much

 Matt McCarthy was a pitcher on the Yale baseball team that had a horrible record. His personal statistics were also not all that great. Yet, he was something that all major leagues teams were always looking for, a lefthanded thrower that could occasionally get batters out. While his velocity was only in the mid-eighties, there was at least the potential that he could improve on that over time. For these reasons, the Anaheim Angels drafted him, paid him the minimum bonus of $1,000 and invited him to their spring training camp. This book is his history of that year where he was a professional baseball player.

 McCarthy was assigned to the Provo Angels in the very low minor leagues. It is a short season with long journeys, the players log thousands of miles on the team bus during the season. Sometimes, they arrive in their destination in the morning after hours on the bus only to play a game later that day. The bus is not in the best of shape, the air conditioning often does not work.

 Some of the player escapades are expected, such as the easy women in the cities. Much of the humor expressed by the players and coaches is crude and vulgar, which is also no surprise given the age and gender of the population. However, there are some very deep insights into the minor league culture. What is astonishing is that the Latin players and the white players have almost no interaction. Even in the more intimate locations such as the clubhouse and dugout, there is almost no communication and little desire to do so. The Latin players are all referred to as Dominican, independent of their country of origin.

 It is a sad and puzzling aspect of the story, given that approximately 25% of the major league players are Latin, it is very likely that some of the players on the Provo team will make the major leagues. It makes no sense why the major league club doesn’t spend more resources in supporting the Latin players, most of which are in their late teens and in a foreign culture.

 While McCarthy demonstrates some occasional competence as a pitcher, he never really rises above the level of mediocre. It is fortunate that he is a talented biologist that attends medical school after is baseball career is over. Which only lasts a year. There is no great game at the end, this story is about the grind, how McCarthy survives it and actually learns from it. So does the reader.