Dirk Hayhurst

Well, the best way to make use of bad news is by doing something good with it. Now that I’m done for this season, it’s time to use my old gear for a new cause. Below you’ll see some of the items I will have up for my seasonal charity auction in the coming days, with ALL the proceeds going to good causes.

Which charity, you ask? Well, that depends. I’m going to pick a few of my favorites, like Autism Speaks and so on, but you can suggest others in the comments box below. If there is a clear-cut winner, I’ll gladly make a donation to it out of the proceeds we generate per your request.

A lot, or a little, it doesn’t matter how much we raise— the point is, it’s the right thing to do, and sure beats stuffing it away into a tupperware bin for the next 30 years.

Every won item will include a signed Garfoose Card or two, and a Rays T-shirt (shirts ar XL. Don’t worry, this is America, you’ll grow into it).

1. This season’s “Mr. Garfoose” glove, with a ball to be Garfoosed and signed to the winner.

2. The infamous Star Wars lunchbox, which will have secrets within that only the winning bidder can open.

3. A Tampa Bay Nike Dry Fit T-shirt… yes, I washed it.

4. A Phiten brand necklace, supposedly imbued with mystical energy that keeps Josh Beckett from turning into a werewolf.

5. A Phiten brand, Tamapa Bay bracelet (not pictured).

6. The limited edition, 4th of July Durham Bulls hat. Worn once.

7. Finally, my BLUE WINDBREAKER!!!!!! *ahem. My old Tampa Bay Rays, spring training windbreaker.

I”ll let you know where and when the auction will take place soon, on here and on twitter (most likely Ebay).

***UPDATE***

Here are the links for the Charity Auction Items.

Glove:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/260846922153?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649#ht_500wt_1171

Lunch Box:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/260846948729?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649#ht_500wt_1171

Phiten Accessories:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/260847368149?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649#ht_500wt_1171

Game Hat:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/260847378813?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649#ht_500wt_1171

Windbreaker:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/260847408509?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649#ht_500wt_1171

Garfoose Ball & Cards:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/260847414790?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649#ht_500wt_1171

First, a deep and profound thank you to all the people who took the time to wish me good luck and stay strong via email, tweet, or blog comment. Things like that make me feel like my primary goal of somehow, someway becoming more than just another uniform occupant during my time in this game were met. As I’ve always said, baseball is tool with which a player can do many great things, chief of which is impacting lives around him for the positive. Your encouraging and supportive sentiments make me feel like I’ve done that, even from the minor leagues. (more…)

A couple of days ago, I was talking to a front office guy with the Bulls about how I got propositioned to write an article about life on the famous Durham Bulls baseball club. I said that I wanted to write about what minor league life is really like (a bad habit I have, one you may have noticed if you’ve read my book). He said, and I quote, “yeah, but no one wants to read about that, they want to read about the love of the game.”

I gave this instinctual cringe when he said that phrase, for the love of the game. He wasn’t, in affect, telling me what I should write, he was simply referring to a commonly held belief that all players play because they love baseball more than anything else in the world, and that love covers up a multitude of evils in what is otherwise a work to live, live to work, death and taxes human existence.   (more…)

The people of Durham can’t drive. Well, most of them can’t. Well, maybe it’s just the ones on the road when I am because it’s pretty frick’n uncanny how every time I drive here I wish more and more that my CRV was less a budget conscious import and more like something out of a Mad Max movie accustom to taking battle damage. (more…)

Here you’ll find all the stuff you need to start your first club house food catering business: Cheeseballs— an absolute must, the bigger the barrel, the better— animal crackers, pretzel rods, Twizzlers, candy, and, of course, the staple of any minor league diet; peanut butter. The soda machine in the background is just above and beyond, but I have to subtract points for the health content of the bananas. You’ll notice, in the background, there is an excellent industrial, multipot coffee maker, and a Red Bull refrigerator. Caffeine is a food group on the minor league nutrition pyramid.  (more…)

I’ve been wanting to write on this here blog more often, but it’s not always convient to sit down and write full length articles about the crazy stuff that goes on in my head. Beyond that, some of the stuff that goes on in there can’t be properly conveyed in word form. Since they say a picture is worth a thousand words, I thought I’d start saying more by saying less, and throwing some of my home made drawings, camera snaps, and photoshop projects up for all to see.

Because I am the world foremost expert on Garfooses, I thought I’d start this venture into the photoblog world with a shot of, surprise, a Garfoose!

I didn’t know what to expect upon my entrance in the professional baseball ranks. To that point, all I had to go on were the exaggerated folk tales spread by my college teammates who had a buddy with a buddy who was playing in some minor league dump while acting like he was the next A-rod.

(more…)

Hanz was pissed, and he should have been. It’s not every day the field coordinator tells you that, yes, your suspicions are correct, he’s racist and the reason Hanz is going back to rookie ball while a certain inexperienced, less talented Latin player is heading up to a full season of A-ball is, because as the field coordinator explains it, “I know where the fuck you come from Hanz. But you don’t know where they come from. You’d give them a chance to if you saw the squalor their going back to if they blow this. Your nice little American lives, yeah, you got no idea…” The field coordinator spat a dallop of Redman juice onto the facilities’ concourse, “so don’t fucking bring it up again.” (more…)

I can still see myself in that hotel room in Birmingham, in pain from stuff I’m not supposed to be feeling pain from, wondering if I’ll sleep tonight or just lie there wanting to go to sleep but not able to like I have the last 5 nights before it.

That’s when the want for the sleeping pills hits me. I can actually taste those little blue bombers— another treat reserved for active, relevant, contributing big leaguers who have the luxury of the line like, “I need them, Doc, so I can get some rest because we’re flying cross country.” For guys like me, guys who just got done seeing a psychologist for injury related depression, they’re a no-no. A never again, in fact.  (more…)

Ever get tired of it? The social media shuffle, that is. The constant jockeying to be “relevant”; to say something snarky that people will care about; to keep coming up with stuff people want to read, see, like, plus, star, or re-tweet?

I get tired of it. So tired.

So why do I do it? Why do I pull time out of the day to audition for nameless, faceless, digitally represented people’s approval? (more…)