Little League Confidential: One Coach's Completely Unauthorized Tale of Survival

A journalist tells of his experiences coaching his son's Little League team with anecdotes about a ballerina batter, an unfair umpire uncle, and other stories that provide a fresh perspective on an American institution

This Little League coach's account of his woes, travails and soul storms in the course of one season is side-splitting. Geist, a CBS News correspondent, lives in Ridgewood, N.J., where he has shepherded preadolescents on the diamond for nine years and, to his amazement, has survived. He describes the draft system for securing players and a shrewd angle-worker who rigged the system. He analyzes the four major types of coaches: "It's only a game, so let's just have fun" (the nerd, according to the kids); "Win or I'll kill you" (the asshole, according to the kids); "We're here to build character, to learn life's lessons" (the despicable preacher, according to Geist); "I pick the kids with the best-looking mothers" (attribution superfluous). He writes of the games, with pitchers flinging balls three feet over the batters' heads, outfielders aiming for third base but throwing to first and a few tyros who are actually good. For anyone in need of a good laugh. First serial to Parents magazine; Literary Guild featured alternate.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A wry look at the perils of coaching Little League baseball in suburban New Jersey, this sporadically funny report by CBS correspondent Geist is a composite of ten seasons with unpredictable eight-to-ten-year-olds, rabid parents, and knavish rival coaches. Describing the March tryouts, when boys and girls are rated by the often conniving coaches, and the eight-team league draft, held in Commissioner ``Barney Foozle's'' family room, Geist reveals the chicanery and double-dealing that go into putting together the best team. Not everyone, it seems, thinks the kids are out just to have ``good, clean fun'': some coaches believe that they should learn ``sound values''; others think that winning is essential to the players' emotional development and future careers. And still other coaches ``picked kids with the best-looking mothers.'' Geist, a former New York Times columnist, showed his savvy by picking a kid with a pool in his backyard, perfect for the postseason party. To Geist, playing for fun ``is a value,'' and he sees to it that his Curl Up N' Dye Hair Salon team has a good time beating teams like the Victoria's Secret Wildkids and the Stool Concepts. His players include his own son and daughter; Emily Change, whose leadoff hits demoralized opposing pitchers; hotshot Byron ``Bad Ass'' McCarthy; and Anand, whose family shows up wearing sarongs and saris. Game by game (one is won on a homer by a young lady still in her ballet- class tutu), Geist's charges march to a showdown with Coach Knavery's Chem Lawn team, win on a late-inning, sugar-induced rally, and proceed to the Ridgewood (N.J.) World Series, where they lose a heartbreaker. Mildly amusing but more often strained or contrived; for a more serious, detailed look at Little League coaching, see Paul B. Brown's My Season On the Brink (reviewed above). -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Geist, former columnist for the New York Times and now a correspondent for CBS News, has written a hilarious account of his experiences with Little League baseball. Both his son and daughter played Little League and Geist was a coach for many years. These relationships form the basis of his lighthearted, humorous, semi-fictional account. Included are flashbacks to his own youth in central Illinois--albeit as a second-stringer in Little League. The book is full of witty observations. On the drafting of one player for his team: "I need a kid with a pool. A swimming pool. For the postseason party." This book is a winner. Recommended for popular sports collections.
- Paul Kaplan, Dakota Cty. Lib., Eagan, Minn.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.