Dirk Hayhurst's Blog

Dear Brother Dirk, I just finished reading Out of My League over the course of the last 3 days, and I came away broken-hearted. I purchased the book as a summer reading gift for my son, a college athlete, hoping to encourage him in his Christian walk. He’s at a cross-roads, taking a big step of faith to compete with an Athletes in Action team this summer. I was discouraged, because I thought you, as a self-identified Christian athlete, would be writing about how to stand up for God...

This piece was written for Sports On Earth. Ten wins against one loss with a 2.10 ERA is a hell of a way to start a season. If it was Justin Verlander, Jose Fernandez, Matt Harvey or Clayton Kershaw attached to those numbers, well, I’d be more than happy to dub the lucky hurler as my early favorite for a Cy Young. But it’s not. 10 and 1 against a 2.10 ERA is the start of Mark Buerhle’s 2014 season, a pitcher whose fame is deeply rooted in his resiliency and flashes of...

What’s wrong with the following statements about cheating? “I needed something to give me an edge so I could perform at the highest level, so I turned to steroids to put me over the top.” “I needed something to give me an edge so I could perform at the highest level, so I turned to a foreign substance to rub on the baseball and my hands to put me over the top.” Answer: One is often considered cheating, while other is often written off as a simple matter of breaking the rules. I know, it’s...

People just don’t do one thing anymore, have you noticed that? The days of working at one place until the powers that be hand you a gold watch and send you into the fog are gone. At least that’s the way it feels. In my short 33 years I’ve been an instructor, burger flipper, dog groomer, private business owner, coach, author, columnist, web designer, analyst, broadcaster, colorman, copy writer, candle maker, and video game developer. About that last one, video game...

25 million dollars with a chance for 40+ if everything goes his way? Good for Chris Archer. Good for all of us, too. Of course that’s easy for me to say, I know the guy. I played with him in Triple A for part of a season. I sat next to him in the Bull’s dugout and talked shop. Back then he was only 22—and a 22 year old that didn’t go to some D-1 super college—but still, as we twiddled away the final months of a Triple A season, riding the pine between appearances,  Arch...

Yesterday I got called out by one of my former coworkers at Rogers for being/having  “sour grapes” because I spent most of opening day being snarky about the Toronto Blue Jays’ loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. This coworker hypothesized that my “new thing” (since leaving Rogers) was 162 games of ripping (via twitter) on the Jays, and that the sour part producing these rips stemmed from Rogers and I parting ways. At least that’s what I got out of it. I mean,...

I’m going to do my best here, but, as cliche as this sounds, words really can’t express how excited I am that my new book launch is almost here, and that another part of the Bullpen Gospels’ story will soon be in the hands of readers. Nor can words properly convey how thrilled I am that I actually have readers. When I set out to write the first book in this trilogy, there was no such thing as a trilogy. No grand design, no hope for more, no “wouldn’t it be great to write three-he-he of...

If, dear minor league player, you decide to tell the general public of your disgust with professional baseball because, for the honor of allowing you to play among its chosen immortals, it’s paying you in stale beer and day old hotdogs, expect your words to echo off into the endless vacuum. Indeed, you’d be lucky to get ignored. The alternative is a tidal wave of angry, bitter, vitriol declaring you an ungrateful whiner with no concept of how hard the real world is, where...

BOOK SIGNING AND EARLY RELEASE PARTY! Come out and join me, talk baseball, get an early copy of my new book ,Bigger Than The Game,  and get your other Hayhurst-ian books signed (and some free baseball cards from my playing days). I’ll even read a chapter or two for you if you want. When: February 24th, at 7pm. Where: The Hudson Library in beautiful Hudson Ohio. Hudson Library & Historical Society 96 Library St Hudson, OH 44236 You (yes, YOU)  are cordially invited, even though...

I remember when I first took serious notice of Roy Halladay. I’d been called up by the Padres to start a few games until Chris Young came back from the DL. Starting…heh, that’s generous. In fact, what I ended up doing was getting my ass kicked. Repeatedly. My first go round in the majors was a rough one and it shook me all the way to the core. I remember sitting in Petco Park’s home clubhouse at my locker, a canyonous custom wooden alter for player’s equipment...

#notabaseballblog My parents, card carrying members of the baby-boomer generation, are presently getting ready to put their parents, “the greatest generation,” into the ground. My god, the books I could write on the many, many theaters of war they’ve seen tours of during this process… Trips to the lawyers, sibling power plays, explaining to their aged parents that, “just because your dead aunt’s friend said there was a television report about a nursing...