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One Shot at Forever: A Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season Hardcover – May 15, 2012

by Chris Ballard (Author)

4.6 819 ratings

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The Inspirational Story of a Coach, a Baseball Team, and the Season They'll Never Forget

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 become the smallest school in Illinois history to make the
state final, a distinction that still stands. There, sporting long
hair, and warming up to Jesus Christ Superstar, the Ironmen would play
a dramatic game against a Chicago powerhouse that would change their
lives forever.

In a gripping, cinematic narrative, Sports Illustrated writer 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 a rag-tag team, intent on teaching the boys as much about life as
baseball. Inspired by Sweet's unconventional methods and led by fiery
star Steve Shartzer and spindly curveball artist John Heneberry, the
undersized, undermanned Macon Ironmen embarked on an improbable
postseason run that infuriated rival coaches and buoyed an entire
town.

Beginning with Sweet's arrival, Ballard takes readers on a journey
back to the Ironmen's historic season and then on to the present day,
returning to the 1971 Ironmen to explore the effect the game had on
their lives' trajectories--and the men they've become because of it.

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

Print length

272 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Hachette Books
Publication date

May 15, 2012
Dimensions

6.38 x 1 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10

140132438X
ISBN-13

978-1401324384
Lexile measure

1000L
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"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

"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 The Bad Guys Won

"Once upon a time, stories like One Shot at Forever were called fairy tales. It is a charming work and so well told by Chris Ballard that it gives sportswriting a good name."
--Frank Deford, author of Over Time: My Life As A Sportswriter

"[A] nonfiction gem about an underdog team that made good. This is the kind of baseball book that has long arms: YA readers, avid baseball fans, sports readers, and narrative nonfiction readers who like to be firmly set in a particular time and place should all find it joyful."
--Library Journal

"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

About the Author

Chris Ballard is a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, where he specializes in narrative longform stories. He has also written for the New York Times Magazine, among other publications, and his work has twice been anthologized in the Best American Sports Writing series. Ballard is the author of four books: "Hoops Nation", "The Butterfly Hunter", "The Art of a Beautiful Game" and the forthcoming "One Shot at Forever: A Small Town, An Unlikely Coach and a Magical Baseball Season".

Ballard joined SPORTS ILLUSTRATED in September 2000. He has covered the NBA and MLB, written nearly 20 cover stories, penned the back page "Point After" column and written features on everything from pigeon racing to Jake Plummer's post-football life to the Vancouver riots. He is one of five 2012 finalists for a National Magazine Award in profile writing, is a past recipient of a National Headliner Award and was the 2011 winner of The Joanie Award for a story about Cal Berkeley coxswain Jill Costello, who died of lung cancer after her senior year. His 2010 story titled "Magical Season of the Macon Ironmen," which was included in the "Notables" section of the Best American Sports Writing anthology, provided the inspiration for his latest book.

Before joining SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, Ballard was an intern at the Courier-Post in Camden, NJ. He has written for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and other publications. Ballard has appeared on The Charlie Rose Show, ABC News with Dick Schaap, and Outside the Lines, and speaks regularly to groups of journalism students. A native Californian, Ballard graduated from Pomona College, where he played basketball and was on the track and field team. He lives in Berkeley with his wife Alexandra and two daughters, Callie and Eliza.

To read a collection of Ballard's best feature stories, go to: byliner.com/chris-ballard

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hachette Books; First Edition (May 15, 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 140132438X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1401324384
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1000L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.12 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.38 x 1 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #303,669 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #260 in Baseball Biographies (Books)
- #579 in Baseball (Books)
- #3,889 in U.S. State & Local History

Customer Reviews:
4.6 819 ratings

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Chris Ballard

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Chris Ballard is the author of four books and a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, where he specializes in narrative features. He's also written for the New York Times Magazine, among other publications, and his work has been anthologized in The Best American Magazine Writing and The Best American Sports Writing series. For the last two years, he's taught a class at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Ballard joined SPORTS ILLUSTRATED in September 2000. He has covered the NBA and MLB, written two dozen cover stories, penned the back page "Point After" column and reported on everything from pigeon racing to Jake Plummer's post-football life to the Vancouver riots. He was one of five 2012 finalists for a National Magazine Award in profile writing and was the 2011 winner of The Joanie Award for a story about Cal Berkeley coxswain Jill Costello, who died of lung cancer after her senior year. Five of his stories have been optioned for feature films, including "One Shot."

Before joining SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, Ballard was an intern at the Courier-Post in Camden, NJ and attended Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. A native Californian, Ballard graduated from Pomona College, where he played basketball and was a mediocre high jumper. He lives in Berkeley with his wife, his two daughters, and two dogs. He thinks every restaurant should serve at least one quality IPA.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5

819 global ratings

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DarthSansa

Great....even to a non-baseball fan

Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2017

Verified Purchase

Even though I am somewhat ambivalent to baseball, I could not put this book down. I really loved it. Here are my top 3 reasons:

1. I can relate to being the small town underdog. In 1970-71, the Illinois state baseball championship was one big playoff. There were no class divisions (1A, 2A, etc). So, big schools from the Chicago area played against the small schools from rural Illinois. The book chronicles the unlikely winning season of the Macon Ironmen and their magical run in the state championship playoffs. Macon is a tiny town with a tiny school. Although they had some success in the season immediately prior to the time covered in the book, they were coming off several losing seasons. No one considered the Ironmen a serious threat.

I attended a small high school, and although it was not as small as Macon, we were seen as the country kids from the small school. Like the kids from Macon, it gave us a wee bit of a chip on our shoulders, but also a deep bond. We felt a sense of commitment to each other. It was something I missed later when I went to college. I felt a serious sense of nostalgia reading One Shot at Forever.

2. The colorful (and real) characters. The Macon Ironmen and their coach were not your typical high school baseball team. Their coach was an unlikely hero. He had just started teaching English at Macon High School. Macon was a conservative town. Lynn Sweet, English teacher and soon to be baseball coach, was anything but conservative. He held liberal ideals, frequented the local bars, had long hair and a Fu Manchu mustache, and lived a nomadic existence. He eschewed the English curriculum for his own unorthodox teaching methods. In short, the towns people considered him a hippie. Not all of them approved. But he won over their kids. They loved him. Their English grades improved and they became more engaged in class.

These methods carried over into baseball. For example, practices were optional. Some of the team members grew their hair out, wore peace signs on their hats, and they began listening to the sound track from Jesus Christ Superstar on a boom box during warm up at games. This is the kind of teacher I would have loved as a kid.

The players and their parents are also interesting, complex people. There are the unlikely heroes, the star athletes, the small and scrappy players. But they are not just stereotypes. We learn about their lives, what drives them, their relationships, and how they lived and grew during those two remarkable seasons.

3. The excellent sports writing. Let’s face it, with a nonfiction book such as this, the outcome is known. Even the cover of the book says “the magical season”. So I went into the book knowing the Ironmen experienced a remarkable winning season. But there were still twists that I didn’t see coming (yay!) and the storytelling of the games had me on the edge of my seat. I couldn’t stop reading. In fact, I stayed on the elliptical machine an extra 15 minutes to finish a certain section.

I definitely recommend this book, even if you are not a baseball fan. I even recommend it even if you don’t like sports. It’s about a lot more than sports or baseball. It’s about a group of people who come together, form a bond, inspire each other, and triumph against overwhelming odds. How can you not love that?

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Tim Williams

Slide, Wellsy, Slide!

Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2018

Verified Purchase

Absorbing. Affecting. Agreeable. “One Shot at Forever” is a skillfully told story about the 1971 Macon High School baseball team in Illinois. The author, Chris Ballard, shows a flair for drama and portraiture. Some of my favorite parts were when Sweet would pull a struggling player aside between innings and ask him why he played baseball, Sweet’s answer would be “Because it’s fun!”; Sweet’s reasoning for pitching batting practice himself instead of letting his pitchers do it, “Why would I want you to learn to throw the ball so guys can hit it?”; and the description of the last game, including David Wells’ Sid Bream-like race for home. One quibble I have is that the author tells us that Macon was a deeply religious town, and yet the story doesn’t show this to be true. The author expertly provides specific detail throughout the story, but provides almost none to flesh out this point. The one detail I remember is that the local newspaper included some kind of a Bible-related feature. I don’t know whether this was something like Billy Graham’s “My Answer” column or something else. I would have liked to have known more specifics about this aspect of Macon and how it affected the main characters in the story. By the way, references to the playing of Tim Rice’s rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar” don’t count, as Rice has made it clear that his take on the Jesus story was more irreligious than religious. Still, this story of the Ironmen of Macon is a home run.

Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2013

Verified Purchase

I'm a sucker for a good baseball book.

I hadn't heard of "One Shot at Forever: A Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season" by Chris Ballard before stumbling across it on Amazon. The Kindle price was but $2.24 (it's since gone up to $2.99, but still a very fair price), so I thought it would be a good way to start the 2013 reading campaign.

This is more of an historical baseball book as it goes back to remember a small-school baseball team based in Illinois. They have old uniforms and a unique coach who does things quite a bit differently. This coach -- the English teacher at the school who has zero experience in coaching -- leads his squad to the Illinois state final. This is back in a time when there were no divisions. Macon is still the smallest school to reach the state final.

The team took on the spirit of its coach -- long hair, peace symbols on their hats and a carefree outlook that seemed balanced enough to win over a town.

Ballard is a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, so he tells a wonderful story from beginning to end, including catching up with many of these players in the present time.

The Good

This is a great story. If you like feel-good stories, especially in sports, this is a fine read. This shows that all in sports isn't bad and it brings you back to a glory day when high school sports were serious, but at the same time, it wasn't as crazy as it is today. Games were serious back then, but society today puts high school sports on a whole different level.

Ballard does a wonderful job of developing all the people in this story, which is tough, considering you have a full team, a coach, his eventual wife, school administration, members of the media and some parents. That's a lot of people. For the most part, I was able to keep track of who is who throughout, though not always. It was really easy to cheer for certain people and, at the same time, have a bit of a dislike for others.

The book also helps the reader related to the team. Even those who grew up and live in large urban areas should be able to feel the emotion of this town and area and the support of the team. One think to keep in mind is this is the early 1970s, so a different time. Though everybody will be able to relate and see what this type of atmosphere was like, I know I got a bit more out of it because I grew up in a small town and understand the thought process and how people will live for the days of a great high school team to show pride in the town.

The Bad

At times, it was tough when some of the players were being mentioned. Though the big ones were pretty easy to follow with, sometimes one of the more secondary players was mentioned and it would make me stop for a moment. I think that's the tough part with a book like this because there are so many people who need to be in it. This isn't fictional, so one can't just eliminate some in situations. To tell the story, these players need to be in the story.

This is a tough "bad," per say, but books like this need a few photos. When dealing with historical items like this, I know I like to see what people look like, or anything else to help my mind paint a picture of the town, the field, the players and all that. Ballard does a wonderful job of describing everything, but having a section in the book with images would have helped. (I've since been told there are photos in the print edition, but I didn't see them in my Kindle edition).

Overall thoughts

I truly enjoyed this book. I didn't take too long to read it as it moved quickly, kept my attention and made me want to keep going. And it really is an underdog story. If you are a sports fan and like something like Hoosiers, you'll like this book. It's the same sort of thing -- the David vs. Goliath. I won't give away the ending of this book, but it doesn't matter what the end result is. It's well worth the read and I would encourage anybody who likes books about real life, sports, overcoming odds or the little guy to give it a go.

5 people found this helpful

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Paul Garner

Couldn't put the Book Down

Reviewed in Canada on February 27, 2014

Verified Purchase

One of the best books that I have read in a long time. Hey, didn't everyone play on a favorite baseball team when they were growing up and hasn't everyone thought of those days and wondered - 'what if?' - we could have or we did - win it all. And hasn't everyone wondered where all those guys on the team went and where they are now. The story plays out so well and the reader identifies with the characters in the story. And as it all unravels one wants to keep reading because you not only want to find out what happens in the season but where these guys are now. It's amazing how the best player, the most heralded star of sandlot, does not always do the best in life's game. That somewhere along the journey of life, we have to let go. Apparently that is not always the case. I read this book in 2 days and gave it to a friend and learned later that he too, read it in two days. A compelling book about a High School Baseball team that is really a story about life in 1971 and life today. Outstanding.

Amazon Customer

Four Stars

Reviewed in Canada on November 25, 2015

Verified Purchase

Worth the read. Very enjoyable

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One Shot at Forever: A Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season Hardcover – May 15, 2012

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