One Shot at Forever: A Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season

by Chris Ballard

Overview

"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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781401312664
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	04/30/2013
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	195,931
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)
Lexile:	1000L (what's this?)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Chris 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.

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

Part 1 Welcome to Macon

Prelude 5

1 Beginnings 7

2 Shark 14

3 Write Your Own Obituary 20

4 "Practice Is Optional" 32

5 Lost in the Corn 42

6 He Ain't Got Shit 49

7 It Only Takes One 65

8 The Announcement 77

9 Long Summer Nights 81

10 Un-American, or Unpatriotic 90

Part 2 The Forever Season

Prelude 99

11 Another Shot 101

12 Hippies, Tape Decks, and a Silent Infield 109

13 The First Step 120

14 We've Only Just Begun 129

15 Big Coop 140

16 Riding into Peoria 153

17 The Baseball Factory 171

18 The Drums 177

19 One Shot 189

20 June 1971 201

Part 3 Ghosts

21 Never the Same 207

22 The Return 221

Acknowledgments 231

Notes 235

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Ballard writes very well and avoids the usual pitfalls of the inspirational story, the cloying platitudes and rah-rah nonsense. These kids were simply good ballplayers coached by a guy with an open mind, a lot of common sense, and a zest for fun." —-Booklist

Editorial Reviews

"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

From the Publisher

A writer for Sports Illustrated, Ballard (The Art of the Beautiful Game) has expanded an article he wrote for the magazine about the 1971 Macon (Ill.) High School’s baseball team’s improbable run to the state finals. Coached by an eccentric outsider, a team of poor farm boys from a small, rural town take on the bigger and richer teams; 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. By exploring the roots of the laid-back managing style of the team’s coach, Lynn Sweet, a “hippie” English teacher who allows his players to warm up to the soundtrack of Jesus Christ Superstar and wear peace signs on their hats, Ballard effortlessly captures the conflict between Eisenhower era beliefs and the changing cultural landscape in Vietnam-era America. But this is first and foremost a sports book, and the core is the dramatic state tournament games that are played out in such detail that it is as if you are sitting in the bleachers with nearly all of the 1,200 residents of Macon. Ballard 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 while asking, if not answering, the question of how much “one game,” win or lose, can change a life. B&w photos. Agent: Robert Wilson. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"Chris Ballard finds the heart in the heartland, in this inspirational tale of a small-school ball club that reaches for glory."

Edward Achorn

"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

"This book is so well told by Chris Ballard that it gives sportswriting a good name."

Frank Deford

"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

"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

When you look for chores to do that will allow you to listen to a particular audiobook, you know that title has you hooked. The compelling and charming story of a small-town high school baseball team in 1971 combined with an able and engaging narrator is an unbeatable combination. Mike Chamberlain has an easy tone, and he varies his pitch and pace effectively to match the material. A few times he alters his voice for direct quotes from figures in the book but not so often that it becomes a distraction. The author is a SPORTS ILLUSTRATED writer, and the book comes across like a long, well-written magazine piece, with a narrative that flows and enough detail to keep listeners engaged. R.C.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2012 - AudioFile