Three up, three down – Reliever’s pen yields a big hit

It was one year ago this week that Dirk Hayhurst, then a relief pitcher for the Las Vegas 51s, now a relief pitcher on the disabled list for the Toronto Blue Jays, told me he was writing a book on his travels in minor league baseball and his innermost thoughts about those travels.

Deadline was fast approaching. He had four more weeks to produce 50 more pages and sweat was beginning to mingle with his innermost thoughts. "So this could be a colossal failure," he said.

Then he had an epiphany on the very spot we were standing in the runway to the 51s' clubhouse.

"But if Jose Canseco can write a book, how hard can it be?"

A man of reason, that Hayhurst.

He got those 50 pages to the publisher on time. The book is not a colossal failure. It's a colossal hit. "The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran" (Citadel Press) has cracked the New York Times bestseller list for nonfiction paperbacks at No. 19.

The book is as fascinating as the man himself, who claims to live with a yellow pet with purple polka dots called a Garfoose and that Roy Halladay's evil one-armed alcoholic twin brother, Ray Halladay, lives in the basement of Hayhurst's home in Hudson, Ohio, where he has a paper route.

I'm attributing much of this to those long bus rides to Modesto.

THREE UP

■ JIM LIVENGOOD: There's a new sheriff in town, and his name, as UNLV assistant coach Ty Gregorak discovered, is not Reggie Hammond. It's Jim Livengood, the Rebels' new athletic director, who said Gregorak could no longer recruit 2½-star prospects or coach linebackers after he was bounced from a Boulder, Colo., strip joint and allegedly stole a wallet and a loaded gun before returning them the next day. As Nick Nolte said in "48 Hrs." when Eddie Murphy was tormenting the patrons of Torchy's nightclub, some of us citizens are behind you all the way, officer.    

■ UNLV HOOP SCHEDULE: In addition to games against Wisconsin, Louisville and Kansas State, next season's Rebels basketball schedule also lists three opponents with directions or hyphens in their names (Southeastern Louisiana, Southern Utah and Central Michigan). Last year's also had three (Southern Utah, Southern Methodist and South Carolina-Upstate). And a Pittsburg (State) without the "h."

■ BOB ARUM: After watching his cash cow, Manny Pacquiao, win election to the Philippines version of the House of Representatives, the Top Rank fight promoter says he is thinking about changing jobs. "I really think that maybe more than a boxing promoter, my calling was as a politician or an operative," said Arum, who served as a lawyer in the Kennedy White House. To paraphrase the old Arum quote, yesterday he was calling out Floyd Mayweather Jr. Today he wants to be James Carville. 

THREE DOWN

■ JEFF SAMARDZIJA: The R-J's Norm Clarke reported in Vegas Confidential that the Iowa Cubs pitcher was spotted celebrating a victory over the 51s at Lavo at Palazzo. With an ERA of 18.90 before the Chicago Cubs shipped him back to Iowa, Samardzija might be better off celebrating at the In-N-Out on Maryland Parkway and putting some of that money he stole from the parent club in his pocket.

■ LAS VEGAS KINGS: I received an e-mail suggesting the Sacramento Kings might move to Montreal, or, if the Quebecois turns up its nose at the idea (like it does everything else), to Las Vegas. And play where? On a temporary court in the Slots-A-Fun parking lot until ground is broken on a new arena that will be financed by taxing tourists who wear polyester shirts depicting royal flushes?   

■ DARINGTON HOBSON: The New Mexico basketball ace who played a year of prep ball at Western High School did not withdraw his name from the NBA Draft. This means he won't be playing for the Lobos next year and most likely will be looking for a deal on an apartment in Istanbul, at least according to some of the draft forecasts I've been reading.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352.