Dirk Hayhurst's Blog
Words and thoughts still trying to make it to the big leagues...Bob Feller
The thing about Keith Olbermann’s brain is, when it comes to baseball, it’s a perfectly maintained, state of the art, encyclopedic museum of knowledge where the curator lives to share the wonders of his collection and drinks to much coffee. When Bob Feller passed away...
How to get to Spring Training.
...if you play in the minors. When it's time to put your costume on and go back to being a baseball player in the minors, here is what your itinerary will look like. Night before flight: Attempt to pack 7 months of supplies into two suit cases and one carry on. 4:30...
Baseball Lesson Manifesto
It's winter here in Ohio, and that means if you're a family looking to advance your child's baseball career, you're turning to indoor baseball venues. Supporting parents will shop around for facilities, camps, and instructors that promise ground breaking insight for...
How’s Your Arm?
I get the arm question a lot, and I totally know why. There are a slew of friends and family, not to mention readers and tweeters, who've been pulling for me to get well. Believe me, I'm thankful for every one of them. But, I'm getting tired of answering the same...
Derek Jeter’s Legacy
This seems to be happening a lot lately, doesn’t it? Someone we love, or in this case, someone we want to continue loving because we’ve become used to the idea of them as a hero, starts to muddy the water with irrational behavior. Well, irrational in our eyes at...
Black Friday
Travel days— they can really break a player down. In bed at midnight, up again at 4 a.m. Grab a cup of coffee then get on a bus to a plane to a minor league town you’ve never heard of. Some of us will play on no sleep, others on just a few hours snagged between bouts...
Signed Copies for the Holidays
Since the holiday season is coming, I've had quite a few requests for signed or personalized copies of The Bullpen Gospels. However, I wasn't comfortable giving out my home address (for those willing to ship me a copy), and its tricky setting something up with my...
Pitching Mechanics, and You.
I used to do pitching lessons in the off-season. Since paychecks stop coming in when the season ends, lessons are a great source of player revenue for desperate minor leaguers. In fact, depending on what level of the minors you’re in and how many students you have,...
Fan Mail
Dear Dirk, My name is *Beaker Humperdink*. I was drafted as a catcher out of high school by the Mets in 2009. I have played 2 years of rookie ball so far, and I am currently spending my 2nd fall in the Dominican Republic for Instructional League. After spending...
The Big Train
This past weekend I was asked to be the Key Note speaker for the Bethesda Big Train's (a collegiate summer league team located in Bethesada Maryland) annual live auction and benefit dinner. It was a big honor, usually reserved for guys with long, detailed baseball...
That Time I Almost Died
The news was significant for a lot of reasons. First off, I get nervous around celebrities. I feel like they have the power to pluck me from my otherwise mundane existence with a simple gaze of recognition. Everyone feels this to some degree, I believe, that if we...
Baseball’s Retirement Home
Yesterday I caught a post from Buster Olney over at ESPN that read something along the lines of how older pitchers want to go to San Diego to rebuild value. He didn't cite any names, but he did say the reason was "Spacious Petco park", implying the field is forgiving...