Hardback : HK$230.00
"One Shot at Forever is powerful, inspirational. . . . This isn't merely a book about baseball. It's a book about heart." --Jeff Pearlman, New York Times bestselling author of Boys Will Be Boys and The Bad Guys Won
In 1971, a small-town high school baseball team from rural Illinois, playing with hand-me-down uniforms and peace signs on their hats, defied convention and the odds. Led by an English teacher with no coaching experience, the Macon Ironmen emerged from a field of 370 teams to represent the smallest school in Illinois history to make the state final, a distinction that still stands. There the Ironmen would play against a Chicago powerhouse in a dramatic game that would change their lives forever.
In this gripping, cinematic narrative, Chris Ballard tells the story of the team and its coach, Lynn Sweet: a hippie, dreamer, and intellectual who arrived in Macon in 1966, bringing progressive ideas to a town stuck in the Eisenhower era. Beloved by students but not administration, Sweet reluctantly took over the ragtag team, intent on teaching the boys as much about life as baseball. Together they embarked on an improbable postseason run that buoyed a small town in desperate need of something to celebrate.
Engaging and poignant, One Shot at Forever is a testament to the power of high school sports to shape the lives of those who play them, and it reminds us that there are few bonds more sacred than that among a coach, a team, and a town.
"Macon's run at the title reminds us why sports matter and why sportswriting has such great power to inspire. . . . [It's] one hell of a good story, and Ballard has written one hell of a good book." --Jonathan Eig, Chicago Tribune
Show more"One Shot at Forever is powerful, inspirational. . . . This isn't merely a book about baseball. It's a book about heart." --Jeff Pearlman, New York Times bestselling author of Boys Will Be Boys and The Bad Guys Won
In 1971, a small-town high school baseball team from rural Illinois, playing with hand-me-down uniforms and peace signs on their hats, defied convention and the odds. Led by an English teacher with no coaching experience, the Macon Ironmen emerged from a field of 370 teams to represent the smallest school in Illinois history to make the state final, a distinction that still stands. There the Ironmen would play against a Chicago powerhouse in a dramatic game that would change their lives forever.
In this gripping, cinematic narrative, Chris Ballard tells the story of the team and its coach, Lynn Sweet: a hippie, dreamer, and intellectual who arrived in Macon in 1966, bringing progressive ideas to a town stuck in the Eisenhower era. Beloved by students but not administration, Sweet reluctantly took over the ragtag team, intent on teaching the boys as much about life as baseball. Together they embarked on an improbable postseason run that buoyed a small town in desperate need of something to celebrate.
Engaging and poignant, One Shot at Forever is a testament to the power of high school sports to shape the lives of those who play them, and it reminds us that there are few bonds more sacred than that among a coach, a team, and a town.
"Macon's run at the title reminds us why sports matter and why sportswriting has such great power to inspire. . . . [It's] one hell of a good story, and Ballard has written one hell of a good book." --Jonathan Eig, Chicago Tribune
Show moreChris Ballard is a Senior Writer at Sports Illustrated. In his ten years at the magazine he's written features, columns and bonus-length stories and covered a range of subjects, from the NBA and MLB to high-stakes pigeon racing and bass fishing. His work has been anthologized in the Best American Sports Writing series and he has twice been nominated by SI for a National Magazine Award. Ballard has also written a number of stories for the New York Times Magazine and is the author of three books: Hoops Nation (Holt, 1998), The Butterfly Hunter (Doubleday, 2006) and The Art of a Beautiful Game: The Thinking Fan's Tour of the NBA (Simon & Schuster/SI Books, 2009). He lives in Berkeley, CA.
"One Shot at Forever is tender, fun, bittersweet, with a great
narrative that just motors. It also features the funkiest coach not
just in the history of baseball but the history of sport-an
unforgettable character in a beautiful and unforgettable
book."--Buzz Bissinger, author of Father's Day and Friday Night
Lights
"[A] nonfiction gem about an underdog team that made good. This is
the kind of baseball book that has long arms: YA readers, avid
baseball fans, sports readers, and narrative nonfiction readers who
like to be firmly set in a particular time and place should all
find it joyful."--Library Journal
"Chris Ballard brings a big heart and a winning style to tell a
memorable story of small-town Illinois. The boys of Macon renew our
understanding of why baseball matters--and sometimes, why it
matters too much."--Cait Murphy, author of Crazy '08
"Chris Ballard finds the heart in the heartland, in this
inspirational tale of a small-school ball club that reaches for
glory."--Edward Achorn, author of Fifty-nine in '84
"There's a reason Chris Ballard has emerged as one of America's top
sports writers. One Shot at Forever is powerful, inspirational
and-in an era where sports are too often marred by scandal-as pure
and true as a warm spring breeze. This isn't merely a book about
baseball. It's a book about heart."--Jeff Pearlman, New York Times
bestselling author of Boys Will Be Boys and The Bad Guys Won
"This book is so well told by Chris Ballard that it gives
sportswriting a good name."--Frank Deford, author of Over Time: My
Life as a Sportswriter
"This story has obvious parallels to the classic basketball film
Hoosiers and in Ballard's capable hands evokes similar themes of
inspiration, camaraderie and the pressure of the once-in-a-lifetime
moments associated with prep athletics . Ballard effortlessly
captures the conflict between Eisenhower era beliefs and the
changing cultural landscape in Vietnam-era America . [He] holds the
story of the team together with his conversational prose and boosts
the story's poignancy with a touching conclusion that demonstrates
the importance of high school sports and hometown
heroes."--Publishers Weekly
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