A season in the minors

Matt McCarthy played baseball on some of the worst teams in Yale history and never expected to make a living off his pitching ability.

But shortly after he graduated from Yale, McCarthy was invited to join the New York Yankees predraft workout. That led to a spot in the 2002 Major League Baseball draft, where the Anaheim Angels picked him in the 21st round. The Angels later assigned him to extended spring training and a slot on their minor-league team, the Provo (Utah) Angels.

McCarthy's professional baseball career was under way.

His book "Odd Man Out: A Year on the Mound with a Minor League Misfit," is billed as a warts-and-all glimpse of minor-league baseball culture, laden with crazy antics and colorful characters -- the prose equivalent of the classic baseball movie "Bull Durham." But  somehow, McCarthy fails to deliver.

The book certainly has its share of outlandish characters like Tom Kotchman, the Provo Angels' manager who entertains his players with Andrew Dice Clay impressions on endless cross-country road trips. Kotchman's antics are certainly entertaining and provide some of the book's most memorable moments.

But McCarthy's pedestrian prose style tends to sap the book of its juice and energy. The result is mildly entertaining, but it's no "Bull Durham."