“Odd Man Out”: McCarthy Says He Was “Careless”
Matt McCarthy told USA Today that he had been “careless” with some of the details in Odd Man Out, but stands by the “crazier stuff” that has raised the possibility of litigation by those he named.
“It bothers me to have been careless on some of these small details, especially when I was painstaking about most others,” McCarthy wrote in an e-mail. “I trusted my notes and my memory on some smaller details, and there were obviously a few instances in which I didn’t have things quite right. That’s my fault, and I’ll take the blame. … But if people are waiting for me to break down and confess that I made everything up, it’s not going to happen.”
I documented on March 6 one incident that’s beyond a “small detail,” in which he claims that Provo manager Tom Kotchman ordered a pitcher to throw at an opposing batter after shortstop Erick Aybar was hit twice by pitches. Aybar wasn’t hit at all in the game — no Provo batter was — and the Ogden batter McCarthy claims was the target of retaliation wasn’t even in the lineup. In any case, if no Provo batter was hit by a pitch in the game, then there would be no reason for Kotchman to order retaliation, which not only is against Angels policy but would also get him a fine and possible suspension by the league.
More importantly, McCarthy’s claims that the book is backed up by detailed notes in his personal journal are starting to ring hollow. The New York Times reporters said they asked to see the journal, but McCarthy refused. McCarthy said in interviews on KPCC FM and NECN TV that he had offered a “point-by-point rebuttal” to the Times, but the reporters refused.
The article quotes McCarthy’s publisher as saying that “it’s likely a revised version of the book will be released.”
FutureAngels.com 