Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Dirk Hayhurst bounced around the minor leagues for parts of seven seasons and, at age 29, could be back there unless he proves he's recovered from a shoulder injury that kept him out in 2010.

Hayhurst has seen enough ballparks and road tripped on enough busses to last an entire baseball career and to fill the pages of his book, The Bullpen Gospels, a New York Times Best Seller about his experience.

At the Bethesda Big Train Holiday Auction on Sunday, though, Hayhurst remembered back to before that journey began.

In the summer of 2001, Hayhurst was a pitcher at Kent State and a member of the Bethesda Big Train, a summer wooden bat league team for college prospects that plays its games at Shirley Povich Field in Cabin John Park.

Hayhurst, who along with ESPN baseball analyst and Bethesda native Tim Kurkjian served as a guest speaker at the event, said his time with the Big Train stood out.

"You don't realize this while you're in college because the scope and grandeur of what it means for the community is somewhat lost for you," Hayhurst said. "You just want to get out there and play. When you get older and you look back you realize what a force in the community this is."

The Big Train auction, an annual event that has raised as much as $50,000 in the past, is meant to provide funding for the repair and maintenance of local baseball fields.

It's at the center of the Big Train's mission. Bruce Adams, the Montgomery County director of community partnerships who helped start the Big Train 12 years ago, points toward the Holiday Auction event each year as the non-profit organization's biggest fundraiser.

"You know how Paul Newman sells salad dressing and then puts the money to a good cause? So it's more fun to make baseball than salad dressing," Adams said.

A dinner, awards ceremony and live auction followed the silent auction at the DoubleTree Hotel in Bethesda on Sunday. Dozens of items – ranging from baseball memorabilia to vacation packages – were auctioned off. The team was expecting about 200 attendees.

Most of the proceeds will go to BCC Baseball, a local youth baseball organization of 240 teams and 3,000 players, to help the group maintain playing fields.

BCC Baseball co-sponsored the event for the first time this year.

"We use over 50 fields every Sunday afternoon," BCC Baseball Executive Director Denise Gorham said. "We've always had a mutual, helpful arrangement because it's a natural progression from our kids up to the college kids."

Big Train Booster Club President Randy Schools said his group of volunteers realizes its support is in more demand now.

"With a lot of cutbacks within Montgomery County with the Parks and Recreation Department, we're hoping we can be a little bit of a gap stopper for this," Schools said. "And for us, it's a lot of fun. It's a group of men and women who really enjoy the sport of baseball. We got involved with it from a young age and this is a way we can stay with it."

Hayhurst, who signed copies of his book, said that aspect of the Big Train organization is unique.

"I think that's great and I think that's why this league has such a heart to it," Hayhurst said. "The Big Train maybe has the biggest heart of all of them I would say because the Big Train does such a terrific job of giving back to the community."

It's something he didn't think about when trying to impress scouts with the Big Train in 2001. But after a long journey to the big leagues and almost a decade in the professional game, he sees it now.

"Now that I'm out of it," Hayhurst said, "I understand what it means for the community in total."

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