March 7, 2005
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.
January 1, 2005
McGough might be a lawyer now, but he spent two glorious years as bat boy for the Yankees-and almost forgot he was a teenager.
Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
November 1, 2005
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 2005 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
March 1, 2005
McGough, now an attorney in New York City, tells the tale of his two years as batboy for the New York Yankees, in 1992-93. It is a pretty story, too, of a boy who made a dream come true and then remembered to live all the parts of it. McGough, although clearly not a prose stylist, can make a sentence go from first to third and slide home neatly. He adored Donnie Mattingly, and his hero never let him down: he has good things to say of many players and keeps the bad ones anonymous. The minutiae of being a batboy is well and clearly delineated: cleaning stuff, fetching stuff, getting stuff from here to there. McGough did all of that while attending Regis, a competitive Jesuit high school in New York, and his struggles to keep afloat academically produce some very funny moments. His lapses into the kind of adolescent trouble one would expect are relatively minor, and he gets to begin college (with a scholarship from George Steinbrenner) by calling pitcher Jim Abbott to congratulate him on his perfect game.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)
February 1, 2005
Lawyer McGough is not a writer, but what he experienced few sportswriters of the modern age can imagine: unguarded friendly moments with star players like Don Mattingly, Danny Tartabull, and others while serving as batboy to the Yankee teams of the early 1990s, a job he won on the basis of a heartfelt letter. A memoir that appreciates instead of dishing dirty; for readers young and old. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 1/05.]
Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.