Dirk Von Hayhurst (born March 24, 1981) is an American

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

and broadcaster, and formerly a

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

. Hayhurst played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

for the

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penn ...

in 2008 and for the

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since 1989, the team has played its home games ...

in 2009. Following the end of his playing career, Hayhurst wrote four books about his experiences in professional baseball.

Early life

Hayhurst attended

Canton South High School Canton South High School is a public high school in Canton Township, Stark County, Ohio, United States. The school, typically enrolling around 800 students in the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades, is the only high school in the Canton Local Sc ...

in Canton, Ohio. He enrolled at

Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio. The university also includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio and additional facilities in the region and internationally. Regional campuses are located in ...

, and played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional p ...

for the

Kent State Golden Flashes The Kent State Golden Flashes are the athletic teams that represent Kent State University. The university fields 19 varsity athletic teams in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I level with football competing in ...

until 2003. He was named the

Mid-American Conference Baseball Pitcher of the Year The Mid-American Conference Baseball Pitcher of the Year is an annual award given to the most outstanding baseball pitcher in the Mid-American Conference. The award was first given after the 1988 season. Kent State Kent State University (K ...

in 2003. He played collegiate summer baseball with the

Bethesda Big Train The Bethesda Big Train is a collegiate summer baseball team based in Bethesda, Maryland. The team is a member of the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League (CRCBL), and derives its name from the nickname of Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson, wh ...

in 2001.

Professional career

Baseball

San Diego Padres

Hayhurst was selected by the

in the 8th round of the 2003 Major League Baseball Draft. He was called up from the Triple-A

Portland Beavers The Portland Beavers was the name of separate minor league baseball teams, which represented Portland, Oregon, in the Pacific Coast League (PCL). The team was established in 1903, the first year of the PCL. Franchise history Many baseball teams ...

and made his major league debut on August 23, 2008, for the San Diego Padres against Barry Zito and the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...

AT&T Park Oracle Park is a Major League Baseball stadium in the SoMa neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Since 2000, it has been the home of the San Francisco Giants. Previously named Pacific Bell Park, SBC Park, and AT&T Park, the stadium's curren ...

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

Toronto Blue Jays

Hayhurst was claimed off waivers by the

on October 6, 2008, but was released four months later before the season started, and re-signed to a minor league deal. On June 2, 2009, Hayhurst's contract was purchased by the Blue Jays from their Triple-A affiliate, the Las Vegas 51s. Hayhurst missed the entire 2010 season while on the disabled list following surgery on his right shoulder. He was sent outright to the minors following the season.

Tampa Bay Rays

Prior to the 2011 season, Hayhurst signed a minor league contract with the

Tampa Bay Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since its inception, the team's home v ...

with an invitation to spring training. Hayhurst wa
interviewed
by Frank Stasio for

North Carolina Public Radio WUNC (91.5 MHz) is a listener-supported public radio station, serving the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. It is licensed to Chapel Hill and is operated by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. On weekdays, WUNC carries N ...

's '' The State of Things'' on June 27, 2011 about his time playing for the Durham Bulls. He was later released from his contract on August 29, 2011.

Broadcasting

After his release from Tampa, Hayhurst began to appear regularly as a ''baseball insider'' on TSN Radio 1050. On June 8, 2012, Hayhurst announced that he signed with

Rogers Rogers may refer to: Places Canada *Rogers Pass (British Columbia) * Rogers Island (Nunavut) United States * Rogers, Arkansas, a city * Rogers, alternate name of Muroc, California, a former settlement * Rogers, Indiana, an unincorporated communit ...

owned

Sportsnet 590 The Fan CJCL (590 AM, '' Sportsnet 590 The Fan'') is a Canadian sports radio station in Toronto, Ontario. Owned and operated by Rogers Sports & Media since 2002, CJCL's studios are located at the Rogers Building at Bloor and Jarvis in downtown Toro ...

to co-host ''Baseball Central'' alongside

Sam Cosentino Salvatore "Sam" Cosentino (born March 16, 1971) is a Canadian sportscaster who currently works as a junior hockey analyst on Rogers Sportsnet. Baseball Cosentino attended Spring Arbor College in Spring Arbor, Michigan, where he played baseball a ...

, starting July 3, 2012. Hayhurst continued to work for Sportsnet during the 2013 season. During Spring Training, he worked as a colour analyst on radio and web broadcasts. He has performed colour analyst duties on radio broadcasts when

Jack Morris John Scott Morris (born May 16, 1955) is an American former professional baseball starting pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) between 1977 and 1994, mainly for the Detroit Tigers. Morris won 254 games throughout his career. Armed ...

was either off or working on television. Hayhurst was hired by TBS as a TV studio analyst for the 2013 MLB postseason.

Controversy

On May 1, 2013, Hayhurst accused

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...

pitcher

Clay Buchholz Clay Daniel Buchholz (born August 14, 1984) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Toronto Blue Jays. Buchholz made h ...

of cheating. Hayhurst claimed that he observed Buchholz "loading the ball" by using

Crisco Crisco is an American brand of shortening that is produced by B%26G Foods. Introduced in June 1911 by Procter & Gamble, it was the first shortening to be made entirely of vegetable oil, originally cottonseed oil. Additional products marketed un ...

or sunscreen to change the movement of the ball. Buchholz and the Red Sox responded by claiming the substance seen on his arm was

rosin Rosin (), also called colophony or Greek pitch ( la, links=no, pix graeca), is a solid form of resin obtained from pines and some other plants, mostly conifers, produced by heating fresh liquid resin to vaporize the volatile liquid terpene comp ...

, used legally to aid the grip of a pitcher. On July 4,

J. P. Arencibia Jonathan Paul Arencibia (born January 5, 1986) is a Cuban-American former professional baseball catcher. He is currently serving as the bench coach for the Syracuse Mets. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays, Texas ...

responded to Hayhurst's criticism of his defensive play, as well as his struggles at the plate during the first half of the season. Arencibia commented, in regards to Hayhurst and Gregg Zaun, that "...speaking for myself and the team, there's not one person in our clubhouse that respects those guys". Arencibia went on to say that Hayhurst was a "below-average player" during the time they spent in Triple-A. In an October 5, 2013 broadcast following Game 2 of the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

Division Series between the

and the

, Hayhurst and fellow commentator

Tom Verducci Thomas Verducci (born October 23, 1960) is an American sportswriter who writes for ''Sports Illustrated'' and its online magazine SI.com. He writes primarily about baseball. He is also a reporter and commentator for Fox Major League Baseball and ...

criticized Rays pitcher David Price for his performance in the game, in which Price gave up nine hits and seven earned runs in seven innings as the Rays lost to the Red Sox. Price responded via Twitter: "Dirk Hayhurst...COULDNT hack it...Tom Verducci wasn't even a water boy in high school...but yet they can still bash a player...SAVE IT NERDS". Price apologized the next day.

Personal life

Hayhurst was well known for his popula
'Non-Prospect Diary'
for '' Baseball America'' and he has also contributed numerous articles to his hometown newspaper, ''

The Repository ''The Repository'' is an American daily local newspaper serving the Canton, Ohio area. It is currently owned by Gannett. History Historically, the newspaper had strong Republican connections, most notably with President William McKinley, who wa ...

''. His book about his time in the minor leagues, ''The Bullpen Gospels'', was published on March 30, 2010.

Keith Olbermann Keith Theodore Olbermann (; born January 27, 1959) is an American sports and political commentator and writer. Olbermann spent the first 20 years of his career in sports journalism. He was a sports correspondent for CNN and for local TV and r ...

plugged the book on

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and politi ...

Countdown with Keith Olbermann ''Countdown with Keith Olbermann'' is an hour-long weeknight news and political commentary program hosted by Keith Olbermann that aired on MSNBC from 2003 to 2011 and on Current TV from 2011 to 2012. The show presented five selected news stories o ...

, saying it "might be one of the best baseball books written in forty years." ''The Bullpen Gospels'' debuted on the Paperback Non-fiction New York Times Best Sellers List at #19. His second book, ''Out Of My League'', was published in 2012. His third book, ''Wild Pitches'', was released in 2013. It consisted of stories cut out of ''Out of My League.'' His fourth book, ''Bigger Than the Game: Restitching a Major League Life'', was released February 25, 2014.

References

External links

Dirk Hayhurst's personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hayhurst, Dirk 1981 births Living people Baseball players from Canton, Ohio American expatriate baseball players in Canada Major League Baseball pitchers Eugene Emeralds players Fort Wayne Wizards players Lake Elsinore Storm players Portland Beavers players San Antonio Missions players San Diego Padres players Toronto Blue Jays players Sportspeople from Canton, Ohio Kent State Golden Flashes baseball players Kent State University alumni Mobile BayBears players Las Vegas 51s players Durham Bulls players Toronto Blue Jays announcers American memoirists American male non-fiction writers