* RK Review (and then some): Odd Man Out

A Year on the Mound with a Minor League Misfit, by Matt McCarthy (Viking)

When I first read Odd Man Out, I thought it was the best book of its kind I had seen in many years. Too many “flavor of the month,” riding the high from a World Series win at best or a steroids accusation at worst, they seek to make hay while the sun shines.

McCarthy, now an intern at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in Manhattan, wrote about his experiences coming out of Yale, signing with the Anaheim Angels, and trudging through the lowest rungs on the minor league ladder. Along the way, he introduces his teammates, which make the gang from Major League or Bull Durham look like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. In fact, McCarthy played for the Angels’ Provo affiliate, so Mormon humor and denigration is part of the story, as is racism, sexism, and a few other -isms too graphic to mention in a family blog.

While trying to prove himself as one of the boys, the author nevertheless writes a bit unfavorably about a few of his fellow players, portraying them as rednecks, misanthropes, and misogynists. But he tells it in an “insider’s” voice that’s entertaining and illuminating, a cross between Bouton’s Ball Four (for shock value)and the more recent Snake Jazz by Dave Balwdin (more intellectual and analytic).

All the more sad and shocking then to read an article published on the New York Times’ web site strongly suggesting that Matt McCarthy is the baseball answer to James Frye, the author who hoodwinked Oprah with A Million Little Pieces.

“Errors Cast Doubt on a Baseball Memoir,” states the article by Benjamin Hill and Alan Schwarz.

“[McCarthy] writes about playing with racist, steroids-taking teammates, pitching for a profane, unbalanced manager and observing obscene behavior and speech that in some ways reinforce the popular image of wild professional ballplayers.

Matt McCarthy said his book was drawn from detailed journals he kept while playing.

But statistics from that season, transaction listings and interviews with his former teammates indicate that many portions of the book are incorrect, embellished or impossible. It comes during a difficult period for the publishing industry, which has recently had three major memoirs … exposed as mostly fabricated. The authors of those books have acknowledged their fraud.

The article reports that several of his teammates were interviewed and all denied some of the more extreme claims, accusations, and portraits, McCarthy made about them. Hill and Schwartz also note that some of the statistics and game details he includes don’t correspond with actual events. Yet confronted with these issues, McCarthy responded that he stands by what he wrote, that his recollections are correct, and those of his teammates and coaches are not.

What is the reader to make of this? Is McCarthy correct, in the face of overwhelming evidence and contradictory information? Or do we go with the majority, which then readers his heretofore engaging book into just another sad story? It’s getting so that when it comes to the disappointment engendered by athletes who lie or at least aren’t entirely truthful, it is the fans who could write a book.

And what about the publisher’s responsibility? Do we buy the excuse that there isn’t enough time or money available to fact check everything an author puts in the manuscript? If that’s the case, how far can an author go with his claims?

I’m still waiting for proof of the old adage, “The truth will out.” Perhaps, but when? After the first 50,000 copies are sold? Or before the book makes it way to store shelves?

In the case of Odd Man Out, it would seem the answer is, unfortunately, clear. And what saddens and angers me most is that like the steroids situation and the news that 103 tested positive in 2003, it now becomes very difficult that what you see in a book such as this is really what you get.

Tagged as: baseball memoirs, Matt McCarthy, Rob Neyer