DeSalvo crafting his own baseball story

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DeSalvo crafting his own baseball story
06/13/2008 8:00 AM ET
By Tim Britton / MLB.com

With a little over an hour to go before first pitch of a Thursday night game against the Durham Bulls, Richmond hurler Matt DeSalvo sits comfortably hunched over in a darkened stairwell outside the Braves clubhouse.
The only light comes from a rectangular cutout in Durham Bulls Athletic Park's brick façade, a paneless window that, once every half hour or so, ushers in a brief breezy reprieve from the otherwise stifling 102-degree heat.
It is here, with Bulls employees sneaking by on the stairs to DeSalvo's right and Durham motorists speeding down Blackwell Avenue on his left, with tiny drops of sweat condensing along the edges of his short-trimmed hair, that Matt DeSalvo reads.
Because it's Richmond's second trip to Durham this season, DeSalvo had already scouted out this stairwell as the perfect spot for his time-consuming hobby. He reads as many as five books at a time, cycling through them depending on his mood. In the last five years, DeSalvo has read more than 275 books.
A ballplayer reading might seem odd to a sports cynic. But sitting down with multiple encyclopedias of literature, building a list of hundreds of books -- ranging from romance novels to poetry to philosophy -- then using the surplus downtime of a Minor Leaguer to plow through them? Well, that seems odd to pretty much everyone.
Even Matt DeSalvo.
"I have to look like the weirdest guy who's ever played Minor League baseball, sitting in a staircase, sitting here reading a book," he says. "People keep walking down the stairs looking like...." He mimics the expression of surprise and confusion that so often greets him on the stairwells of the International League. "It's kind of awkward."
But it's an awkwardness DeSalvo has grown accustomed to. It was about five years ago that he coursed through those encyclopedias of literature, writing down anything that piqued his broad intellectual curiosity.
You see, DeSalvo doesn't read because he enjoys it; in fact, he doesn't enjoy it. But he has an insatiable desire to learn, and this is the only way he knows how. So, it was that thirst for knowledge that drove him to compile a list of nearly 1,200 books that he wanted to read. DeSalvo then did something he does very well: he consolidated.
DeSalvo doesn't carry anything extra with him, lives his life out of three suitcases and a car, and doesn't even keep the books that so frequently change his weltanschauung (a comprehensive view of the world and human life). He decided to apply this minimalist approach to his learning plan and eliminated books that resembled one another. It left him with a trim list of a mere 400 titles.
Imposing? You bet. Insurmountable? You don't know Matt DeSalvo.
It wasn't until his sophomore year that DeSalvo even considered a professional baseball career possible. He was at Division III Marietta College in Ohio, studying environmental science and imagining life as a fire jumper or forester when he started throwing 96 miles per hour.
DeSalvo moved from third-string starter to staff ace, eventually becoming Division III's all-time leader in career wins (53) and strikeouts (603). His ascent continued after signing with the Yankees as an undrafted free agent in 2003, earning the organization's Pitcher of the Year honors in 2005.
But a story isn't any good without conflict. Every rise needs a fall, every hero needs a struggle. Enter 2006.
Between stops at Double-A Trenton and Triple-A Columbus, DeSalvo recorded a 6.38 ERA and averaged more than seven walks per nine innings. In 11 games at Columbus, he went 1-6 -- as many losses as he had in his entire college career. And like so many Minor Leaguers, DeSalvo had difficulty coping with the first significant setbacks in his baseball life. The experience opened his eyes on and off the diamond.
"That was probably the most educational year of my life. I learned who was important and who actually mattered," he said candidly, as he yanks his warmup shorts down over his knees on the stairwell. "I figured it out because I sat there and said, 'I don't need these people who are half-friends.' That's just how I am. That's how I had to be, how I had to grow up."
The next spring, the Yankees took DeSalvo off their 40-man roster to sign Miguel Cairo, meaning any team could claim the hurler who was just one year removed from his Pitcher of the Year campaign.
No team did, and DeSalvo went into Spring Training with yet another fresh perspective derived from a revered source: Miyamoto Musashi's The Book of Five Rings. A code of conduct written for samurai in 1643 that has become a reference for competitive types in all arenas, it advised DeSalvo that he had to be patient yet aggressive on the mound, and never afraid to lose. He credits the book with helping him develop a mental second wind to overcome adversity.
It wasn't long after he finished Musashi's work that DeSalvo found himself in the big leagues, starting at Yankee Stadium against the Mariners on May 7, 2007. It was a dream night, one that could have come right out of a book: seven innings, three hits, one earned run. But if DeSalvo had thought he'd made it, that his story had reached its climax, well, that would have been a bit naïve.
The Yankee faithful he had ingratiated himself with that first night taught him the meaning of "Bronx cheer" the next time he pitched in New York, booing him off the mound. In relief against the Angels, DeSalvo faced four batters, giving up two hits and walking the other two. He didn't record an out, but he certainly recorded a memory.
"I like that memory, because it's funny to me. I like to stay humble, and you can go on a streak where you're throwing shutouts, but that memory, I don't know why, it comes back," DeSalvo said with a shrug. "You've got to be able to laugh about things that have happened to you. If you can't learn to laugh at yourself, you're in trouble."
As much as DeSalvo's baseball journey seemed ideal for a screenplay -- the Pennsylvania kid whose childhood friend taught him how to pitch makes it big in the Big Apple -- he knew that life doesn't always imitate art. Least of all when you want it to.
During his first season in the Minors, DeSalvo penned a novel on buses and in clubhouses for his girlfriend. It was a love story, he says, unabashedly, with a not-so-subtle message he wanted to get across to his significant other.
Did it have a happy ending?
"There was a happy ending. But in reality," DeSalvo shakes his head, "no."
That's not the only story DeSalvo has written. He regularly takes notes in a journal, and considers writing to be a career option when his baseball days are over. But the greatest story he'll ever write may not be one crafted with pen and paper, but with a ball and a glove.
And does that one have a happy ending?
DeSalvo isn't exactly in a rush to find out. For a guy who hates mystery novels -- "to me, they're all the same" -- he sure does love some suspense.
"If you try to figure everything out, then the mystery of life goes away," he says. "If you try to understand the serious things in life, they lose their excitement."
DeSalvo already has one fan in his own clubhouse.
"His story's gonna be one hell of a story when he makes it," Richmond pitching coach Guy Hansen said. "He's been through a lot over the course of his life, and for me, I think it's going to happen. I think it's meant to be, so he can tell his story."
The end? Oh no, not even close. This one's to be continued...
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues or its clubs.