I'd wondered all year how the power of baseball should be wielded. And now I knew. Baseball doesn't have any intrinsic power. It only has what people give to it. For some the man who plays is a superhero, and he can do great things. For some, the man who plays is an obstacle who must get out of the way. Is baseball as important as food, knowledge, care, or a dry pair of boots? Is it as important as some of the things that pass us by in everyday life? I don't think so. Can it inspire, motivate, and call us to do something greater than ourselves? Absolutely. The burden of the player isn't to achieve greatness, but to give the feeling of it to everyone he encounters. It was wrong of me even to try to separate life and the game. They were intertwined, meant to be, one affecting the other, one teaching the other, even when the mixture occasionally blows up.
*an excerpt from the book
The Bullpen Gospels
I loved Bullpen Gospels! If you want to hear Dirk Hayhurst in person, tune in to seamheads.com and their Sept 27 radio broadcast. Dirk makes an outstanding guest, generous and candid with all his comments, and very funny - just as you would expect. The 45-min conversation really makes you appreciate the guts it took for him to write this excellent and important book.
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thanks for the tip Judy. I will have a listen. He has another book in the works too. He was talking about it in an interview he did for the station that covers the Jays.
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