A few weeks ago, I mentioned a book I’d been reading, Matthew McGough’s Bat Boy: My True Life Adventures Coming of Age with the New York Yankees. I first encountered McGough’s story in the New York Times a couple of years ago. In that article, he described his first day as a Yankee batboy in 1992, during which he received quite a rookie hazing: Yankee captain Don Mattingly sent McGough on a fool’s errand of finding a left-handed bat stretcher, making for a hilarious tale.

Published by Doubleday earlier this year, Bat Boy is an a lighthearted, entertaining memoir of life in the dugout and the bowels of Yankee Stadium, circa 1992-1993, and thanks to the cooperation of McGough, I’m pleased to offer an excerpt of one of the book’s chapters here. The second half of the chapter is available by emailing the author via the link provided at the end of Part I. Enjoy!