Odd Man Out

Today on Rob Neyer’s blog at ESPN.com he has a link for a very interesting article about a book recently written by former Angels minor league pitcher, Matt McCarthy.

Check out the article, written by Benjamin Hill and Allan Schwarz, here.

Basically, the book recounts all the juicy details of his summer with the team, the truth however doesn’t seem to have a place in his novel. He alleges everything in his tale from steroid use, racism, and all around inappropriate behavior from his teammates and manager. McCarthy accusing current White Sox pitcher Bobby Jenks of advising him to fake an injury to avoid lifting weights and of showing up to the park hung over on several occasions. Jenks, who has never tried to hide his troubled past stated that McCarthy’s accusations are false and that he “..couldn’t point him out in a room. I didn’t know who he was then. I don’t know who he is now.”

He also describes an incident accusing current Angel Joe Saunders of making disparaging remarks on the team bus when in fact Saunders had been promoted from the club days before the supposed incident took place. These are just two of a great deal of claims in his book that have been proven false by statistical and transaction information or that have been called flat out lies by former teammates.

McCarthy who is a graduate of Yale and the Harvard Medical School is currently an intern in the residency program at New York Presbyterian/ Columbia hospital. Judging by his collegiate resume I’d say he’s a pretty bright guy and he looks to be doing pretty well for himself. My question then would be ‘Why write this book?’.

It seems pretty obvious to me this guy is blatantly trying to cash in with his sensationalized stories. If his tall tales were true maybe he could drum up some sympathy for being a good boy on a team of misfits, but with all the embellishments and inaccuracies he winds up looking the worst of all. The fact remains this book never needed to be written. Baseball players are just that, they’re not saints we all know that so we certainly don’t need to read about it in this nobody’s book. Shame on publisher Viking Press as well for putting out this book that has proven to be greatly inaccurate. They really need to stop production on this book and pull it from store shelves in my opinion. If this were to happen I doubt McCarthy will care, he’s got his paycheck and I’m sure that’s all he’s worried about.

-Robb Lennahan