Book Review: ‘Bat Boy’ by Matthew McGough

Bat Boy: My True Life Adventures Coming of Age With the New York Yankees. Matthew McGough. Doubleday. 2005. 273 pages. No index. No photos. ISBN: 0385510209. Available from Amazon.com for $16.07.

” ‘Listen, Matt,” [Don Mattingly] said. “I’ve got an important job for you. I just unpacked all my bats from spring training. I don’t know if it was the humidity in Florida or the altitude of the flight or what, but they’re all coming up short. The game stars in a couple of hours. I need you to get me a bat stretcher.’

I nodded, trying to keep cool and project competence. Get a bat stretcher.”

That was sixteen-year old Matthew McGough’s introduction to life as a bat boy for the New York Yankees. Every rookie player has to go through a hazing and the bat boys are no exception.

In his fun and fast-paced memoir, McGough brings us through two years in the life of a bat boy for the New York Yankees. This was in the early 90s, lean years for the men in pinstripes. In late 1991 when McGough begins his quest for the job, the Yankees were on their way to a 5th place finish in their division. In his first year, 1992 they finished 4th, and in 1993, his last with the team before going on to college, they finished 2nd.

McGough does not focus on the Yankee as such, although the book is interlaced throughout with anecdotes about players, coaching staff and management…for a real inside look at how a baseball team is run from the ground up. What makes this story special is that it’s the story of a boy coming of age, who just happens to do it while working beside multi-millionaire baseball players who turn out to be just like regular guys.

“From my very first day at work, people were curious to know which Yankees I’d found to be jerks or assholes; after “What’s Mattingly like?” it may have been the question I most frequently fielded. In truth, there were only one or two, and I understood even that without them my Yankee Stadium education in human nature would have been incomplete. It’s instructive to discover at age sixteen that someone unimaginably wealthy could and would stiff you for twenty bucks after you’d picked up and paid for their lunch or dry cleaning. Or that you could work for two years with someone who never bothered to learn your first name. The better lessons came from the guys who reached out to me in small but meaningful ways – greeting me by name on the bench, asking about school, playfully inquiring about how I was getting along with the ladies.”

Of what does the job of bat boy – of whom there are several working a game – consist? For it is a *job. They’re there for every home game. They clean the clubhouse. They make food runs for the players. They collect the balls that go to the backstop, collect bats dropped by the batsmen, and run fresh balls out to the umpire. They track the foul balls hit down the sidelines. They play catch with the right fielder during warmups before each inning. Sometimes, that had its scary side, as McGough relates:

“I would become more personally acquainted with [Paul] O’Neill’s trademark intensity later in the season, during games when I was stationed down the first-base line and O’Neill was playing right field. Warming up O’Neill between innings was nothing like the easygoing game of catch it was with any other Yankees right fielder. This was especially true after O’Neill had just made the third out in the previous frame; God forbid he had stranded runners in scoring position. After he stalked out to his position, I would loft the ball to him in a soft arc. He would fire it back at me so fast, and with such palpable frustration, that I was afraid to move my glove an inch from where I held it up as a target.”

The latter third of the book deals with the 1993 season. George Steinbrenner, fresh off his suspension, returns. Paul O’Neill was the new right fielder. And a new pitcher was the one-armed Jim Abbott.

For two years McGough worked to keep up his grades while spending every night at the ballpark. Occasionally he goes on road-trips with the team. He becomes friends with the other bat boys and the equipment managers. He deals with fans who want to use him as an entree to the players. He collects girls’ phone numbers. He gets caught in a get-rich-quick pyramid scheme that takes all his hard-earned savings. And he learns a final lesson about integrity and responsibility before going off to college – thanks to a scholarship paid for by George Steinbrenner.

McGough’s parents drove him to the college campus for his first day. It would prove to be a memorable day for more than one reason:

“I left for college just before noon on the morning of September 4. The Yankees had a game scheduled later that afternoon at the Stadium against the Cleveland Indians. It’d be the first home game I would miss in nearly two seasons. It would also be my brother Damian’s first game as a Yankee bat boy. …
One of my new classmates passed me on the staircase. “You hear about the game today?”
…”What happened?” I asked. “They win?”
“No-hitter” Sam said, beaming. “A no-hitter!”
…I thought I was going to be sick, simultaneously overcome with pride at what [Jim] Abbott had accomplished and grief for not having been there to share it. I felt my eyes burning, and I wasn’t about to let a wholly inexplicable wave of tears mar my first college friendship.
“Godammit!” I yelled, and stormed the rest of the way up the stairs to my room. I can’t imagine what Sam made of my outburst.”

McGough’s relationship with the team continued even after he left for college. Indeed, five years later the organization invited him back – to work – for the 1998 post-season in which they won the pennant. McGough’s memories as he enters the clubhouse and sees all the inevitable changes – new players, new coaches – is quite poignant.

For fans of baseball, for fans of coming-of-age stories, for fans of good writing, this is a must read.

My quibbles are all minor ones.

1) No index. Every non-fiction book should have an index!
2) No photos.
3) No team list for 1992 or 1993. Die-hard Yankees fans will know who played during these years, but for the average baseball fan an Appendix would have been helpful. (This is out of the author’s hands – probably a decision made by the publisher)

1992
Pitchers
41 Tim Burke
25 Greg Cadaret
26 Steve Farr
35 Lee Guetterman
42 John Habyan
36 Shawn Hillegas
54 Sterling Hitchcock
57 Steve Howe
49, 43 Jeff Johnson
22 Scott Kamieniecki
54 Tim Leary
43 Sam Militello
55 Rich Monteleone
34 Jerry Nielsen
33 Melido Perez
21 Scott Sanderson
36 Russ Springer
31 Bob Wickman
35 Curt Young

Catchers
38 Matt Nokes
20 Mike Stanley

Infield
2 Mike Gallego
28 Charlie Hayes
14 Pat Kelly
23 Don Mattingly
59 Hensley Meulens
56 Dave Silvestri
60 J.T. Snow
17 Andy Stankiewicz
18 Randy Velarde

Outfield
29 Jesse Barfield
27 Mel Hall
31 Mike Humphreys
19 Dion James
39 Roberto Kelly
45 Danny Tartabull
51 Bernie Williams
13 Gerald Williams

Others
12 Jim Leyritz
24 Kevin Maas

1993
Pitchers
25 Jim Abbott
43 Paul Assenmacher
34 Andy Cook
26 Steve Farr
35 Paul Gibson
42 John Habyan
53 Neal Heaton
34 Sterling Hitchcock
57 Steve Howe
53 Mark Hutton
42 Domingo Jean
43 Jeff Johnson
28 Scott Kamieniecki
22 Jimmy Key
34 Sam Militello
55 Rich Monteleone
54 Bobby Munoz
33 Melido Perez
47 Lee Smith
31 Frank Tanana
27 Bob Wickman
39 Mike Witt

Catchers
38 Matt Nokes
20 Mike Stanley

Infielders
12 Wade Boggs
2 Mike Gallego
14 Pat Kelly
13 Jim Leyritz
23 Don Mattingly
17 Spike Owen
47 Dave Silvestri
35 Andy Stankiewicz

Outfielders
29 Mike Humphreys
19 Dion James
31 Hensley Meulens
21 Paul O’Neill
18 Randy Velarde
51 Bernie Williams
36 Gerald Williams

Others
24 Kevin Maas
45 Danny Tartabull