All I can say is WOW! I am up to the last chapter and don’t want it to end. There have been so many times I have teared up, perked up, and flat out cried during this read. One of the most moving and touching books I have read about baseball ever.
I don’t know if it’s because it hits close to home, having grown up in Baltimore and lost to Gambrills more than a few times, or if it’s just because the book drives home everything I feel about youth baseball. I can not tell you how many times I tell my coaches it’s about the kids and keep it fun. I am president, and coach, and have no intention of giving it up because my goal is to give back to these kids a little bit of the fun I have been able to experience in baseball.
I played for a coach who sounds very similar to Coach Spellman…Coach Joe Duff at the US Naval Academy. Coach Duff was a disciplinarian who stressed fundamentals and basics of baseball. If you played the game his way you were golden. He and I hit it off right away. Years after playing for him at USNA I was lucky enough to see him before he passed. I told him I was coaching and running a league. His words of wisdom stay with me even now. (and here come those tears again)
He said: “Rick, teach the game, no one teaches the game anymore. It’s all about the home run these days and no one teaches the kids the way to play the game. Make it fun, teach, and look out for those moms, they can be tough on you.”
Thank you for writing this book. Absolutely wonderful. I am even forcing my wife to read it and she could not get past the first quote talking about a dad and his son going to their first game. (Ok…welling up again!) She was asking me for the book last night. She doesn’t get to read much with an 18, 15, and 6 year old but she is reading this one! Thanks again and I look forward to talking to you soon!
Rick Wilson
President
Frederick American Little League
