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

by Ballard, Chris

• ISBN13: 9781401324384
• ISBN10: 140132438X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-05-15
• Publisher: Hachette Books

Summary

"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 "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 "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

Author Biography

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	p. 1
Welcome to Macon
Prelude	p. 5
Beginnings	p. 7
Shark	p. 14
Write Your Own Obituary	p. 20
"Practice Is Optional"	p. 32
Lost in the Corn	p. 42
He Ain't Got Shit	p. 49
It Only Takes One	p. 65
The Announcement	p. 77
Long Summer Nights	p. 81
Un-American, or Unpatriotic	p. 90
The Forever Season
Prelude	p. 99
Another Shot	p. 101
Hippies, Tape Decks, and a Silent Infield	p. 109
The First Step	p. 120
We've Only Just Begun	p. 129
Big Coop	p. 140
Riding into Peoria	p. 153
The Baseball Factory	p. 171
The Drums	p. 177
One Shot	p. 189
June 1971	p. 201
Ghosts
Never the Same	p. 207
The Return	p. 221
Acknowledgments	p. 231
Notes	p. 235
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.