Dirk Hayhurst
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Articles by Dirk Hayhurst
Advice For Baseball Job Seekers
A little while back an individual who was about to hatch from the business world and flutter into the real world asked me about getting a job in the baseball world. He’d sent out all his resumes, and, after months of anxious perseverating over whether his childhood dream of working around the holy game of the base and ball would happen, he’d gotten a bite. OMG! What should I do? What should I say? What should I wear? He wrote me to ask. God only knows why.
“Inside the Game, You Are Still a Commodity”
Interview by Nathan Kalman-Lamb There has been plenty of talk recently about exploitation in Minor League Baseball, in no small part because of the passage last year of the Save America’s Pastime Act. The law exempts Major League Baseball, a $12 billion annual business, from paying minor leaguers overtime.
Price's injury has been a long time coming
While we don’t yet know the full extent of David Price's injury, I'm not surprised it's happened and I won't be surprised it results in full-blown Tommy John surgery. If anything, this has been a long time coming. Poor Price gets beat up for not winning in the postseason, but he's a major reason why the teams he's played for keep getting there. On average, he's logged over 220 innings in his last six seasons. A good amount of those innings have been under high stress, short rest circumstances.
An off-season blueprint for the Blue Jays
The Toronto Blue Jays’ 2016 season came to an anticlimactic end by way of shutout loss to the Cleveland Indians in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series. Given that the Jays had the best pitching staff in the AL and one of the game’s most potent offences, I have to say, I’m a little disappointed. I expected more from the club, especially after they mashed the Texas Rangers in the American League Division Series.
Gibbons goes with gut over obvious choice
When the season is on the line and the result of one game will decide everything, you have to go with the obvious choice. Unless you’re Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons, in which case you trust your gut over the mountain of evidence showing Francisco Liriano to be superior to Marcus Stroman when it comes to winning baseball games against the Baltimore Orioles in 2016. Look, wild-card games are a crapshoot.
How routine can dictate a pitcher’s performance
The Toronto Blue Jays are going to ask Francisco Liriano, and possibly other starters, to occasionally assist from the bullpen during the remainder of 2016 season and throughout the playoffs (should the team make the postseason). On paper, this is a brilliant manoeuvre, capable of reinforcing a shaky Jays bullpen. In practice, however, this is a move steeped in risk. I did both during my professional career - the starter and reliever role - often during the same season.
Adoption Quest - 1
We don’t have a baby lined up. We’re not even on a waiting list yet. We are, however, several home visits and thousands of dollars into the process, and I want to tell you right now, honest and unashamed, that so far I frigging hate the adoption process. I am—and I have to keep telling this to myself despite my sarcastic and darkly humored nature—a good person. I’m an upstanding citizen and talented professional with a lot to offer both society and the workforce.
What to read, watch and chew to get ready for Opening Day
Sunday is Opening Day for Major League Baseball, and the sporting world is gearing up to see the boys of summer take the field once more. If you don’t know what “boys of summer” means and can’t fathom why anyone would take a day off to catch the first game of the longest season in professional sports, worry not: Let this list of books, films and activities prepare you for the 2016 season.
The Dodgers' New Baseball Oracle
LOS ANGELES, CA - SEPTEMBER 19: Greg Maddux #36 of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitches against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium on September 19, 2008 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images) Welcome back to Los Angeles, Greg Maddux, you old scallywag. Maddux, a recently minted Hall [...]
Donald Trump "Absolutely" Supported by John Rocker
When I heard that one of baseball's premier closers was fully endorsing Donald Trump's bid for presidency, I thought it had to be Jonathan Paplebon. Trump Papelbon 2016! They'll run arm and arm under a flowing banner which reads, "together, we'll choke slam the democrats for playing the political game [...]
DIRK HAYHURST " A True Patriot
I now work as the Director of Media Relations at a company called Patriot Software. We do payroll and accounting in the cloud. We focus on helping small business owners, and we provide stellar service for a very inexpensive price…………. Yeah, I know… It’s the not so epic conclusion to a life that’s yielded 4 books, a movie deal, years in the Big Leagues, and a run on national television. I am officially a working stiff.
The 'Man in White' is just a baseball tall tale
Let’s compare theories on why Johnny Cueto got ravaged by an explosive Blue Jays offence in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series. Since Johnny Cueto and Edinson Volquez are visiting, I let them go first: According to tweets from former Blue Jays beat writer and MLB correspondent, Jordan Bastian, the Jays are allegedly back to their nefarious ways of stealing signs.
When I Was a Gay Athlete
When I was fourteen, I made the worst decision of my life: joining my middle school wrestling team. It wasn’t the weight cutting or rolling around on dirty mats with sweaty boys that made it so bad. It wasn’t even the humiliation of wearing a singlet. It was what happened when the team decided I was gay. At fourteen I was a chubby, slow, asthmatic. I never won a match, barely made it through practices, and served as the team’s poster child for pathetic.
DIRK HAYHURST " The Road Ahead
Recently someone from my hometown got drafted and a slew of people—many i’ve not talked to in decades—came out of the woodwork, asking if I’d talk to the young man about what to expect on the professional journey. Short answer: Bad locker rooms, peanut butter and jelly, and hard, small, coach bus seats. Long answer: The defining quest of your life, distilled into a series of numbers that the untold masses will use to errantly measure your value as a human being.
Five myths about baseball
"Baseball is like church," former major league infielder and manager Leo Durocher once said. "Many attend, few understand." And pitching is one of the most lionized, misunderstood and mythologized aspects of the game, even among other pitchers - hence those pointless titanium-infused necklaces they're always wearing. Here are five myths from the mound, dispelled in time for opening day.. It looks nasty. It sounds - that dull thud - nasty. And boy, does it ever feel nasty.
Five myths about major league pitching
It looks nasty. It sounds — that dull thud — nasty. And boy, does it ever feel nasty. But that look of contrition on a pitcher’s face after putting a batter on the ground via a 90 mph fastball to the ribs, those conciliatory hand gestures — don’t mistake that display for an apology. That throw might very well have been intentional; the pitcher just doesn’t want the opposing hurler to hit one of his guys in retaliation.
DIRK HAYHURST " The Zaun Factor
I like Zaun. I honestly do. That doesn’t mean I don’t know what he is, or how he is, it just means that, all things being equally, I do respect what he’s done in the game and find him personable, honest, and—despite what anyone might think considering his comments on hazing—a caring guy. Sure, he’s rough edged, gritty, blunt, and matter-o-fact on air. He can also be that way in real life. My point being: what you see is what you get with Zaun.
Bullish on Masterson and His Value Upside
I’m bullish on the prospect of the Red Sox signing Justin Masterson, and I think Justin Masterson should dig it as well. He’s going to get a lot of run support, the upgrades to infielding make Boston a nice match for a sinker-baller, and he’ll be reunited with John Farrell. For the right dollar amount, that’s not too shabby when you consider he won’t be expected to play staff ace but a middle of the rotation arm with a chance of being more.
Advice For Baseball Job Seekers
A little while back an individual who was about to hatch from the business world and flutter into the real world asked me about getting a job in the baseball world. He’d sent out all his resumes, and, after months of anxious perseverating over whether his childhood dream of working around the holy game of the base and ball would happen, he’d gotten a bite. OMG! What should I do? What should I say? What should I wear? He wrote me to ask. God only knows why.
Hunter, Gammons, and Sabre the Unicorn
Hey Blue Jay fans. Aren’t you glad you didn’t get Torii Hunter? First, he’s old. Second, he’s overpriced. Third, he’s in decline. And fourth, you can’t tell him that he’s in decline unless you’ve played. Oh, and then there is that thing about same sex marriage and how he feels it’s wrong, which I’m pretty sure would go over in Toronto about as well as painting a homophobic slur on your face.
8 Tips on Writing
A couple of days ago my EMBA classmates and I were hit with requirements for six papers at once. Four case study breakdowns and two final reports that are—because of the way the holidays are spread out over our class dates—due all at the same time. In total, it’s over 100 pages of writing for three weeks of class, and, of course, all the papers need article and journal citations and blah, blah, blah—you know, collegiate paper drill. If you write for a living, this number might not scare you.
So Complicated: My Encounter with Avril Lavigne
I mentioned in my latest Bleacher Report article that I’d met Avril Lavigne. It’s true, I did, and it was one of the most awkward, ridiculous, stereotypical celebrity encounters of my life. What happened was, I was with the Blue Jays in 2009, shagging balls in the outfield of the Rogers Centre during batting practice.
Other Perks That Come Next for MLB Stars After Signing Big-Money Contracts
Some people wonder what perks come with signing a big big league contract. I mean, one of the huge contracts. A funny-money contract that gets compared to the gross national product of nations and makes for with bar receipts showing tips in the thousands because, you know, it's chump change for you now. Anyone who has ever wanted for money doesn't need to hear about how having piles of it is a perk. We all get it.
How to Enjoy Neil Allen
You don’t know this, but I’ve always liked you. Well, at least the concept on you. Love your team, your town, and your State. Lakes… I mean, who doesn’t love lakes? Now you have one more reason for me to love you = Neil Allen. I played for Neil back in 2011. Lemme tell ya, you’ve not heard a baseball story until you’ve heard Neil tell one of his, “So I got drunk, got on random plane and just showed up someplace else ’cause that’s what I did between starts” stories. Mind = blown.
What Do MLB Players Really Do During the Long Offseason Months?
For the casual fan, baseball's offseason is little more than an , slogan-riddled rumor fest with big names being thrown around like parade candy and speculation popping up from every media feed like unending weeds in a digital sidewalk. Think back to the last couple of .
Bigger Than the Game: Bo, Boz, the Punky QB, and How the '80s Created the Celebrity Athlete (9781592406371): Michael Weinreb: Books
A mesmerizing look at sports in the 1980s - when athletes became superstars, mavericks replaced heroes, and sports moved to the forefront of American culture. In the 1980s America sent to the White House an actor and ex-jock who fervently believed in the power of personal mythology, and Americans turned to sports to find their heroes.
A Major League Pitcher's Guide To Baseball's Bullshit Unwritten Rules
I was feet-up in my basement playing PlayStation when I heard about Tim Kurkjian's piece over at ESPN on "The Unwritten Canon, Revealed," claiming to be an all-access pass to baseball's exhaustive list of unwritten rules. Finally, I think to myself, someone figured it all out. And who better than Kurkjian, one of the good eggs of baseball journalism. He's smart, he's insightful, he fits in most overhead bins.
To crack the MLB draft, I had to learn to stretch the truth.
By Dirk Hayhurst Most of the young men who play baseball in this country would do anything to turn professional. Part of it is the glory associated with wearing a pro jersey, and part of it is the desperation a young man feels when, as school wraps up and the real world beckons, a pro contract is the only way to keep childhood alive. I knew that feeling well.
An Inside Look into the Harsh Conditions of Minor League Baseball
On the walls of every minor league locker room, where rosters and travel schedules are pinned, you will find sign-up sheets for what are known as "player appearances." They usually include things like speaking engagements at local schools, signings at grocery stores, meet-and-greets with the mascot at a car dealership, etc. The venues vary, but the payment-which can be as little as a gift card at the lowest minor league levels-only changes with a promotion.
A Major League Pitcher's Guide To Doctoring A Baseball
The old saying says that it's not illegal if you don't get caught. In baseball, sometimes it isn't illegal even if you do.I'm fairly certain, for instance, that last night, the entire world caught Michael Pineda shamelessly loading the ball up with the gunk he was keeping on his pine-fresh palm. Bud Selig didn't send investigators to the scene of the crime, though, nor is there—to the best of my knowledge—a suspension looming on the horizon.
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