An Inside the Park Home Run

One Shot at Forever by Chris Ballard
New York : Hyperion, [2012]
viii, 255 p. : ill., map ; 25 cm.

I added this book to our high school library last April after seeing that it was a 2016 Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee, and that it won a 2013 Alex Award (given to books for adults that have great young adult appeal).

After reading it, I wish it had won the Lincoln Award; it's that good!  It's a great book with so much to recommend it: a great baseball tale, an underdog story with heart, an homage to the counterculture of the 60s & 70s, a nostalgic coming-of-age saga, and a local setting!

I won't spoil the ending, but the book, with the subtitle A Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season, recounts the unlikely successes of a very small town high school baseball team during the 1970 and 1971 seasons.  I was surprised to find out that in the 70s, Illinois high schools (at least in baseball) competed for state playoffs against schools large and small.  There were no classes and divisions, so a little school of 300 students might play a Chicago, powerhouse school of 5000 students.  This uneven competition is part of what makes the story so compelling.  Also, at the heart of the narrative is an iconoclast teacher/coach who - because of his big heart and unconventional notions - brings out the best in students and players.

I will highly recommend this book to students and teachers.  Some of the events of the story take place right here in Champaign-Urbana, and just 70 miles away in Macon, Illinois.  Also, the sports writing is crisp and interesting, but what really makes this book wonderful is the great passion and love that shines in the retelling of the Macon Ironmen "Mod Squad."  It is a lovely tale of some of the best aspects of teaching, coaching, and playing sports for the love of the game.