Bat Boy: My True Life Adventures Coming of Age with the New York Yankees [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Matthew McGough (Author, Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 3, 2005

Sixteen-year-old Matthew McGough was a fairly typical teenager, obsessed with getting through high school, girls, and baseball, not necessarily in that order. His passion for the New York Yankees was absolute, complete with a poster of his hero, Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly, hanging on his bedroom wall. Despite having no connections whatsoever with the ballclub, Matt dreamed of sitting in the dugout with the fabled Bronx Bombers. So, in the Fall of 1991, he wrote a letter in his very best penmanship to the New York Yankees asking for a position as a bat boy.
 
Miraculously, he got the job, and on April 7, 1992, Matt walked into the madness of the Yankee clubhouse on Opening Day. And there was Don Mattingly, Donnie Baseball himself, asking him to run an errand, an errand which soon induced panic in the rookie bat boy. Thus began two years of adventures and misadventures—from the perils of chewing tobacco while playing catch with the centerfielder, to being set up on a date by the bullpen, to studying for a history exam at 3:00 a.m. at Yankee Stadium, to his own folly as Matt gradually forgets he’s not a baseball star, he’s a high school student.
 
BAT BOY captures the lure and beauty of the American pastime, but much more it is a tale of what happens to a young man when his fondest dream comes true. Matthew McGough wonderfully evokes that twilight time just before adulthood, ripe with possibility, foolishness, and hard-won knowledge.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The author, who spent two seasons with the Yankees when he was a high school student in the early 1990s, is evenhanded in describing the job's ups (hanging around the players) and downs (doing menial chores like cleaning sinks and polishing baseball spikes, and putting up with the players' egos). McGough, now a Fordham Law School graduate, chooses to dwell on the positives and tells his story without too much fawning over or dish on the players. He loved getting paid cash tips, meeting girls and becoming famous in a minor way by association. But he also had to deal with outsiders who sought to gain an "in" with players like Don Mattingly and bigwigs like George Steinbrenner by cozying up to peripheral personnel like McGough and other clubhouse workers. The teenager tried to balance all this glamour with a hectic school life, which, naturally, wasn't always easy, much to the chagrin of his parents and teachers. Since Yankee policy dictates that bat boys can work a maximum of two years, McGough matured from "rookie" to old hand in a short time, losing a degree of innocence as he learned how to take advantage of his "veteran" status, which he describes in honest and self-effacing terms. Agent, Heather Schroeder at ICM. (On sale May 10)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–McGough was 16 when he wrote a letter to the Yankees and asked for a position as a batboy. After persistently calling their switchboard over a period of weeks, he was finally granted an interview with the clubhouse manager. He got the job and spent 1992 and 1993 in the position. The author focuses on the positives and tells his story with immediacy, humor, and heart. While he met famous ballplayers and cute girls, he also had to deal with outsiders who sought to gain an in with such folks as Don Mattingly and George Steinbrenner by cozying up to peripheral personnel. This memoir is much more than an all-access pass to Yankee Stadium and baseball–it is an exquisitely written and observed book about growing up and the beauty of the game. The author is honest and self-effacing in his recounting–he almost failed high school when he placed his job before his studying–and he later mentions that being a batboy gave him confidence as he fulfilled his childhood dream. The book is a quick, fast read, full of amusing anecdotes involving spring training, bat stretchers, a pyramid scheme, and 50 illegal CDs.–Erin Dennington, Fairfax County Public Library, Chantilly, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Random House Audio; Abridged edition (May 3, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0739320513
• ISBN-13: 978-0739320518
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 4.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,275,918 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Matthew McGough was born in New York City and raised in North Tarrytown, a Westchester suburb that renamed itself Sleepy Hollow while he was away at college.

In the fall of 1991, as a junior at Regis High School, Matt began taking the subway up to Yankee Stadium after school, usually buying a $6 ticket to sit in the right-field bleachers. At one of these games he noticed for the first time the presence of bat boys on the field. It got him thinking -- how does one become a bat boy for the Yankees? Is there an application? A tryout?

He took a game program home that night and wrote letters to any team official who he imagined might be responsible for bat boy hiring. It didn't occur to him that no one would respond. But no one did. So Matt called the Yankees' switchboard, and then called again, until one day a letter arrived inviting him to the Stadium for an interview. The rest -- like the place it all happened -- is history.

After his two-year stint with the Yankees, Matt attended Williams College (George Steinbrenner's alma mater) and Fordham Law School (where his grandfather and father also earned their degrees). He then served as a law clerk to United States District Judge Deborah A. Batts at the Federal Courthouse in lower Manhattan.

During this time Matt started writing down some of those Yankees stories he'd been carrying around in his head since they happened. He wrote a few chapters and eventually found an agent, who submitted it to publishers. In 2003 Doubleday agreed to publish the book and Matt set to work writing it. Unbeknownst to him, a copy of his book proposal reached a TV agent in Los Angeles, who passed it on to an executive at CBS. CBS liked it and Aaron Spelling decided to option it. Over a period of a few months a script was written, and in February 2004, a pilot episode filmed. All this time Matt continued writing the original book. On May 19, CBS announced its fall lineup - including its new series CLUBHOUSE - at Carnegie Hall in New York. Just before the presentation, Matt and the woman seated directly in front of him were introduced. A few years later, they would marry.

CLUBHOUSE premiered on CBS in September 2004, shortly after Matt completed the manuscript the show was based on. It received some nice reviews. Eleven episodes were eventually produced and CBS aired six of them. All eleven still run occasionally on HDNet. You can watch the pilot here.

Matt's book - "Bat Boy: Coming of Age with the New York Yankees" - was published by Doubleday in 2005. You can learn more it about here.

In 2006, Matt became a legal consultant to NBC's LAW & ORDER, and was later promoted to staff writer. He has co-written or written ten produced episodes.

He knows very well how incredibly fortunate he is to have had such great opportunities.

Matt lives in Los Angeles with his wife Kathy and their twin boys, big baseball fans themselves.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hate the Yankees, love the book!, May 16, 2005

By 

M. Johnson (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bat Boy: My True Life Adventures Coming of Age with the New York Yankees (Hardcover)

It's a tribute to the author that I, an ardent Mets fan and Yankee-hater, really enjoyed the book. Maybe that's because, for all the funny baseball anecdotes and fascinating insider scoops, this isn't just a baseball book--it's a memoir, and the coming-of-age thrust of the narrative is quite effective. McGough manages to convey both the arrogance and insecurity that a 17-year-old boy in an infinitely enviable position--hanging out with his heroes, traveling with them, getting paid (among other perks)--must have felt.

The story is touching without being overly sentimental, and it rings true. Best of all, this isn't one of those corny "Baseball=life" stories; McGough skillfully interweaves the two main elements of his story with humor and a light touch. I actually laughed out loud in some parts, and was genuinely moved in others.

While baseball fans will surely enjoy this book on another level than their non-baseball-loving peers, any reader with an appreciation for clever writing and hilarious tales of hubris and naivete should read this book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a book that stands apart from both sports storiesand memoirs, May 29, 2005

By 

Martin Toner - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bat Boy: My True Life Adventures Coming of Age with the New York Yankees (Hardcover)

i read this terrific memoir during the first warm afternoon of the spring, and would encourage anyone to spend a similar afternoon this summer. mcgough shares some great stories from his time as a bat boy and the first-hand accounts of mingling with legends of the yankee's near and distant past have a wonderful immediacy and economy - the author deftly avoids dipping into the grab-bag of sports clichés. mcgough depicts some admirable yankees - mattingly, abbott, williams and o'neill - without lapsing into hero worship, and he has the good taste and discretion to avoid dishing whatever dirt he may have witnessed along the way.

above all though, this is not a book about baseball, or - thank god - a book about how baseball is the ultimate metaphor for american life. this is a story of one young man's experiences growing up among a group of men who are paid millions to play a child's game. mcgough seems to have acquired more maturity and wisdom through his adventures than many of the more famous inhabitants of the bronx clubhouse apparently did.

mcgough doesn't labor to make his experiences seem universal, and perhaps because of this they actually do resonate as familiar boyhood adventures - disastrous early encounters with girls, struggling to acclimatize as the youngest person at your first job, fretting over college admissions, being taken-in by get-rich-quick schemes - mcgough's anecdotes are both amusing and heartfelt.

there were various points when i laughed out loud, and almost as many where i had to pause and wonder what it must have been like to have so many terrific experiences at such a formative age. what mcgough has achieved here is a sincere and entertaining coming-of-age story that avoids sentimentality, well worth a read.

one additional note: judging from the cover and jacket photos of the author, it is clear that mcgough never succumbed to the siren song of steroids, and the fact that they are not mentioned in the book represents another differentiating factor from the saccharine-dipped or cliché-ridden or self-serving sports memoirs likely to be jostling for shelf space along side mcgough's first rate book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every Boy's Dream, May 11, 2005

By 

Adam Lorenzo - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bat Boy: My True Life Adventures Coming of Age with the New York Yankees (Hardcover)

This guy got to live my childhood dream... to be a bat boy for the New York Yankees! He met players like Mattingly and Mantle and got to play baseball with his buddies at 3AM... in Yankee Stadium! And the best part is, he did it all on his own... no connections. Just perserverance and a dream.

It's an unbelievable story that flies off the page. A great summer diversion.