The Dirk Hayhurst Gospels
The unfiltered afternoon sun roasts the concrete behind the visiting team bullpen at the Toronto Blue Jays practice facility in central Florida. With neither cloud nor canopy to temper the pounding heat, the long walk from the players’ dugout down the dusty left field line and out to the away team clubhouse is an arduous one.
Dirk Hayhurst has made treks like this before, but not this one exactly.
On January 21, 2011, Hayhurst signed a minor league contract with the Tampa Bay Rays. This mid-March appearance is his first at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium since his previous tenure with the stadium’s deed owners.
In the 2009 season, his second as a big leaguer, Hayhurst threw 22.2 innings of middle relief, striking out 13 with an ERA of 2.78, but then injuries crept in, robbing him of a 2010 campaign.
We’re mere innings into the exhibition match against his former club when Hayhurst pulls aside a Rays teammate to join him on the model diamond tucked away by the fence on the stadium’s property line.
Normally after the fourth inning, Hayhurst would be preparing himself mentally for a call up to the bullpen, on this particular day, however, he’s already put in his work thanks to a two-inning disaster from starter Chris Bootcheck.
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Though he threw admirably in his premature one-inning appearance, Hayhurst was caught off guard by a Corey Patterson stolen base. Now with the help of an anonymous infielder, he’s fine-tuning a skill set that has him perennially knocking on the MLB door. He has every intention of leaving a lasting impression on his new employers.
“It’s a different philosophy [with the Rays],” says Hayhurst, after a series of repetitions on the outfield-less practice diamond. “You know, the Blue Jays have a different philosophy than the Padres and the Rays have a different philosophy than them.”
Hayhursts ducks into the only sliver of shade the midday sun allows.
“The rumors about them being positive, upbeat and out of the box are all true.”
In most cases, the genuine opinion of a 30-year-old right-handed middle reliever signed to a minor league contract wouldn’t be news. In Hayhurst’s case, a published author and the de facto voice of the baseball-playing masses, the opposite is true.
“When I first came over to the Jays [prior to the 2009 season], some of the front office people came over and said ‘We know you’re a quality guy because we’ve read your book’ and that was the same case here.”
The book, he refers to, is the New York Times best-selling title, The Bullpen Gospels, a comically vivid account of life in the ranks of America’s minor leagues.
Topics that Hayhurst is none too shy to address range from politics in the various tiers of professional baseball to his own virginity. Throughout its pages readers get an illustrative look at the personal and environmental factors that shaped him, a fledgling fringe prospect, into the man and the player he is today.
“It helps me and it hurts me, I guess it depends on how you interpret me as a writer,” says Hayhurst. “Definitely the old guard guys are really reticent to be around me and the new guys are like ‘oh you’ve got to get me in the movie bro, I got a story’.”
Though the timeline of the book refers to his tenure with the Padres organization which drafted him in 2003, the consequent celebrity never reached its peak until Hayhurst was already a member of the Blue Jays. It was in Toronto where Hayhurst fully evolved into an acclaimed author, Twitter favorite and the leader of the Garfoose Generation.
His online interactions through social media have allowed him to fortify a personal brand image, making more of an impact than he would have otherwise.
“I think you’ll see more players who have more obscure on-field stats become more popular to the fanbase through their personalities, which I think is great. I think it will be good for the game in the long run if players manage it well and they keep their wits about them.”
The responsibility of such power, however, should be handled with care. Not every athlete is blessed with the articulation of a published author, nor every player as grounded as the Canton, Ohio product.
In 2011, the repercussions at stake for athletes online are considerably more obvious than they were three, even two years ago.
“The Blue Jays were afraid of that one [Twitter],” says Hayhurst. “I was the first guy to do that and there was some backlash there for that. And then you get [to Tampa] and you have guys who have been doing it since it started.”
On the mound though, regardless of his following, Dirk Hayhurst, the pitcher, is only as influential as Major League Baseball front offices decide he is. Despite his online presence and clout with fans, Hayhurst was let go as the result of a faulty shoulder.
“I understand that this is a game of what have you done for me lately, and what I had done for the Blue Jays lately was been hurt, and cost them money,” says Hayhurst. “[Teams] have to wonder if I’m going to have that upside on the other end to make that back to them – and probably not. So it was smart of them to cut their losses and move on. It was never anything personal.”
Since his release from the Jays, Hayhurst has been active on the mound and at his desk. In March he was wrapping up the second installment of The Bullpen Gospels, which, he says, will detail his adjustments to life as a married man and how exactly he came to pitch in his first Major League game back in 2009.
On the field Hayhurst has been toiling once again in the minors, not having thrown in the Bigs since his last game of 2009. It’s just the latest stage in a hectic lifestyle that thousands of baseball prospects and projects live year in and year out.
After failing to make the Rays out of training camp, Hayhurst was sent to Triple-A Durham, where his five starts this season have yielded 23 strikeouts in 26.2 innings of work. With a 3.38 ERA and 1-1 record, though, there’s no saying for sure when he might make his next appearance with a Major League ball club.
If one thing is for sure, it’s that his rise back to the top certainly won’t be a dull story.
“You don’t feel as stuck in a cookie cutter mold [with the Rays organization], guys with versatility can excel here and they’re liked here,” says Hayhurst. “It’s really cool to see, it’s almost a creative experience.”
While he works his way back to throwing at a Major League level on a surgically-repaired shoulder, Hayhurst does have an advantage over a lot of the peers with whom he’s competing for limited spots: name recognition.
It’s an advantage he’s happy to have made for himself.
“We are a product, we are entertainers and we are reduced to stats,” says Hayhurst, as Manny Ramirez lumbers past under the hot Florida sun, glancing inquisitively at the journeyman middle reliever with the microphone in his face. “But that doesn’t mean that [has to be the case]. If we want to change it we have to participate in that process.”
Buy The Bullpen Gospels on Amazon.
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