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. Now hear Matthew McGough tell
the story in his own words. Click
here or the above picture for a sampling of the book.