Matt McGough - My First Day At The Yankees

 

I grew up a huge fan of the New York Yankees, which when I was very small involved going to games maybe once a year with my father, my little brother watching Reggie Jackson, then a little bit older watching Dave Winfield. And then, when I came into my teens, Don Mattingly, who was my absolute favorite player. 

 

As I went to high school in New York, and it was a turning point, the first time that I went to a Yankee game by myself and I started going to Yankee games by myself. It was at one of these games in the fall of 1991 that I went up to the stadium, bought a ticket to the bleachers, and went and sat in the bleachers, and was watching the game and noticed for the first time something that I had been to the stadium so many times before, but I'd never seen this kid in right field wearing a Yankee uniform, who was a bat boy playing catch with the right fielder. 

 

I'd never noticed the bat boy before. And this kid could not play catch for his life. He was throwing the ball over Jesse Barfield's head, the right fielder, and he was one-hopping him, and I was like, "You know, I'm not a great athlete, but I can play catch at least as well as this kid can." [audience laughter] I don't understand why he has that job and I couldn't. [audience laughter]

 

So, I went home that night, and I tore a page out of the program that listed all the different Yankee executives and I wrote a handwritten letter to everyone from Steinbrenner on down to Stump Merrill, who was the manager at that point, and basically said, "My name is Matt, and I'm 16 years old and I'm a huge fan of the Yankees. I don't know if you can apply for this bat boy position, but if you can, I really would like an application. I'm so excited to hear from you that if I don't hear from you soon, I'm going to follow up with a phone call." [audience laughter] 

 

So I sent these off. And about two weeks went by, and after two weeks I hadn't heard anything, and so I picked up the phone, and the Yankee switchboard number was on the same list of executives and a secretary answered the phone, "Hello, New York Yankees." And I said, "Hi, this is Matt McGough, and I sent a letter in a couple weeks ago about applying for a bat boy position, and nobody got back to me." [audience laughter] So, she's like, "Okay. Well, I'll take your name down and I'll have somebody get back to you." She took my number down. 

 

Another week goes by and I don't hear anything. So, I pick up the phone again and I call. And this woman answers the phone, "Hello, New York Yankees." And I say, "Hi, this is Matt. I sent some letters in about the bat boy position, and I called last week and somebody was supposed to call me back, but I thought it was rude that they hadn't." [audience laughter] And so, she laughed and she asked me, "How old are you?" And I said, "16.” And she laughed some more. I didn't really understand what she was laughing at, but she took down my name again. She said, "I'll make sure that somebody gets back to you." 

 

So, a few days later, sure enough, in the mail, a letter arrived on Yankee letterhead, official letterhead, and it invited me to come up to the stadium for an interview with Nick Priore, who's the clubhouse manager. So, I put my jacket and tie on. I don't even think I told any of my friends about this, because it was way too weird to explain. [audience laughter]

 

So I went up, took the 4 train up to the stadium and walked around the stadium. This is October, so they weren't playing in the World Series in October back in 1991, so it was very, very quiet. I walked around the stadium, and walked into the Yankee lobby and there's a security guard there. I introduced myself and I say, "I'm here for the bat boy interview." [audience laughter] He picks up the telephone and he's like, "Nick, some kid's here to see you." Okay. So, he says, "Have a seat."

 

So, I sit down in the pinstripe lobby and I'm passing about 10 minutes waiting for this guy Nick to come up for the first job interview of my life, or the first job of my life. I'm trying to think of the questions that he might ask me, so I'm ready to tell him what my favorite subject is in school, and tell him why I think the Yankees need a big bat behind Mattingly to win the pennant next year, and what Mickey Mantle's batting average was in 1956 and all these different questions. [audience chuckle] 

 

So, I'm passing the time, and these double doors burst open and this guy walks in, obviously Nick, but he doesn't introduce himself. He could be anywhere from 40 to 80 years of age. [audience laughter] He has this greased back hair and a stogie between the two teeth left in his mouth and a chalk tobacco possibly also, and Yankee shorts and white athletic socks pulled up to his knees and shoe-polished-- black sneakers that are obviously shoe-polished. He just looks at me and says, "Are your parents going to mind you taking the train home late at night?" 

 

So, I say, "I take the train to school every day, I think it'll be fine." He just looks at me and finally I say, "No, I don't think my parents will mind me taking the train home late at night." And he says, "Well, come back opening day." [audience laughter] So, that was October. I go home, I think I have the job. [audience laughter] I'm not really sure. Six months later, opening day in 1993, I show up at 09:00 AM. I put on my jacket and tie, I walk back to the stadium, I go back downstairs through these tunnels and come to this big steel door that says Yankee Clubhouse on it. I walk inside and it's complete pandemonium. 

 

There's these baseball players that I'd only seen before on TV or across rows and rows of stadium seats, and they're there in the flesh in front of me. Don Mattingly is over on the right, and I had a poster of Don Mattingly above my bed for my whole life and he's standing right over there. Jimmy Key, the ace of the pitching staff, is over there, and all these guys. 

 

Opening day at Yankee Stadium is not just a sports event. It's a news event. It's the beginning of spring in New York, and Mayor Dinkins is there with his entourage. It's just Mayor Dinkins and Don Mattingly walking around. So, I am walking around and just lost, and I figure I better go find Nick. So, I walk up to Nick and I say, "Nick, I'm Matt. We met a couple months ago. [audience laughter] What do you want me to do? It's my first day of work." So, he says, "Stay the F out of my way." [audience laughter] 

 

So, I shrink back and throw my backpack over on the side and just wander around in a daze. And I feel a tap on my shoulder, and I turn around and it's Don Mattingly. He sticks his hand out and says, "How's it going? I'm Don Mattingly. Are you going to be working with us this year?" [audience laughter] which even at that moment, I never really thought about the experience in those terms. He could have said so many other things that wouldn't have been as cool as that. He could have said, "Who are you, or are you the new bat boy or are you going to be working for us this year?" But he said, "I'm Don Mattingly. Are you going to be working with us this year?" 

 

 So, I said, "I know who you are, Mr. Mattingly. I'm Matt, I'm the new bat boy." And he's like, "Great to meet you, Matt. I have a very big job to ask of you. I've just unpacked all my bats from spring training, and I don't know if it was the altitude of the flight up from Florida or the humidity down there or what, but the game starts in about two hours and I need you to find me a bat stretcher." So, I say, "Okay." [audience laughter] So, I go and find Nick. Nick is busy, probably half a dozen ballplayers are bothering him for double A batteries or my hat is too small or this or that. 

 

And I go up and I'm like, "Nick, I need a bat stretcher for Don Mattingly." He lets loose with a stream of expletives that [audience laughter] fell on, I swear, completely virgin ears. [audience laughter] I'd never heard that type of language in the movies before or anywhere, let alone directed at me. So, I rock back on my heels and go find somebody I can trust, like Nick's assistant Rob, and I ask him, "I need a bat stretcher for Don Mattingly, and Nick told me to go F myself, and I don't know what to do." [audience laughter] 

 

So, he was like, "Chill out. I saw Danny Tartabull using one in his locker." So, Danny Tartabull's the power-hitting right fielder. I go to his locker, and he's getting dressed in his uniform and I stand off to the side and he says, "How's it going?" And I'm like, "Fine. I'm Matt. I'm the new bat boy, and I need a bat stretcher for Don Mattingly. I heard you were just using one." So, he's like, "Well, I was using one, but I left it in the manager's office. You should probably go check in there. [audience laughter] So, I say, “Thanks.” And he says, "See you around."

 

Then I go into the manager's office and walk in, and Buck Showalter, the manager, is having a press conference with probably [audience laughter] like 8 or 10 reporters. I stand off on the side, and I'm kind of-- The conversation comes to a standstill, basically, because there's a 16-year-old kid there in his Easter blazer and jacket, [audience laughter] standing in the manager's office at Yankee Stadium two hours before first pitch on opening day, looking very lost and very anxious. [audience laughter] 

 

Showalter turns to me and he's like, "Can I help you?" And I say, "I'm Matt. I'm the new bat boy. I'm really sorry to interrupt, but I need a bat stretcher for Don Mattingly, and Danny Tartabull says that he left it in here.” [audience laughter] So, Showalter looks down, like beneath his desk and he's like, "Well, do you need a right-handed one or a left-handed one?" [audience laughter] So, this is the first moment all day that I actually-- this is the first question I had that I could answer with complete confidence, because you couldn't have grown up in New York at that time without knowing that Mattingly was the best left-handed hitter in baseball. So, I say, "I need a left-handed bat stretcher." [audience laughter] 

 

So, he's like, "Well, I think we maybe have a right-handed one around here, but probably not a left-handed one. [audience laughter] You should try down at the Red Sox clubhouse and see if they have one." [audience laughter] So, I said, "Okay, thanks. I'm sorry to interrupt." I go. At this point, I'm speed-sprinting down the hallways, like the tunnels beneath the stands, the first-base stands at the stadium. I run into the Red Sox clubhouse and find their equipment manager and give him the whole story, "I'm Matt. I'm the new bat boy for the Yankees, and Danny Tartabull left his right-handed bat stretcher, and I'm in Buck Showalter's office, I need a left-handed one and the game's about to start." 

 

And he's like, "Calm down, we don't have one, but we need one. Here's 20 bucks, [audience laughter] go up to the sporting goods store on 161st Street and River Avenue and buy two, [audience laughter] buy a left-handed one for Mattingly and a right-handed one for us and then bring me back the change." [audience laughter] 

 

So, he gives me the 20 bucks, I put it in my pocket, I run upstairs. At this point, it's like an hour before opening day, the fans are coming down, like 50,000 fans are coming down from the subway in the opposite direction that I'm walking. [audience aww] I'm the only person in the world who knows that if I don't come through on this mission, Mattingly is going to go up there against Roger Clemens and the Red Sox on opening day at Yankee Stadium with a toothpick in his hand, basically. [audience laughter] 

 

So, I'm fighting against the crowd and feeling so much weight on my shoulders. I make my way, and I'm about to cross the threshold of Stan's Sporting Goods when it dawns on me, like, I've played a lot of baseball in my life and I've been a big fan for a while and I don't even know what a bat stretcher looks like. [audience laughter] And in this moment,  that I'm walking into the store, it dawns on me for the first time like, "Is this a joke? Could this possibly-- [audience laughter] could this possibly be a joke?" But I had so much fear, because if it is a joke, and I go back and tell Don Mattingly, "I'm too smart to fall for your bat stretcher story." [audience laughter] 

 

And I'm wrong, I'm going to be back in the bleachers before my first game and lose my dream job. So, I take three laps around the stadium, convincing myself, "It's got to be a joke. It's got to be a joke." I walk back in, I go down the stairs, I walk into the clubhouse. Mattingly winks at me from across the clubhouse, a couple of the other ballplayers laugh, Mattingly goes 3 for 5 that day, Yankees win. It was my first day in pinstripes. I didn't learn until later on that I was the first kid in anyone's memory to have gotten the job without having a connection, without somebody knowing somebody or my dad knowing somebody or whatever,- [audience applause] -which was a lesson in itself. As intensely naive my pursuit of that job was, I was probably as naively intense in chasing the bat stretcher. [audience laughter] But the lesson in the story is, with a great deal of persistence and a little bit of common sense, even if the thing you're chasing may not exist, you can sometimes will it into being. Thank you.