Coach: Lessons on the Game of Life by Michael Lewis
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Book Reviews of Coach: Lessons on the Game of Life
Book Review: Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing
Summary: 2 Stars
As a coach myself, I was interested in Michael Lewis's thoughts and feelings about his former youth baseball coach, Coach Fitz. Was Fitz a positive impact on his life? Michael says so, but I struggled to understand why. Here was a coach who apparently believed in him by putting him in the game to pitch in a crucial situation. Or maybe the only reason he entered the game was because Fitz accidentally visited the star pitcher twice in the same inning and so was compelled to take the star out and put Michael in.
Fitz was an intense coach and apparently was able to convince his team (at least back in the 70's) that hard work could pay off. I guess this was one of the "Lessons on the Game of Life". Coach Fitz said he cared about the kids but it wasn't clear from any of the stories that any of the kids thought the coach cared about them.
Maybe the truth is that Coach Fitz was most concerned about winning. The author remembers most clearly all the things Fitz broke in the locker room after losses. Coach Fitz would walk home after losses to punish himself for the players sins. The players were not allowed to wash their jerseys until they won. I guess they weren't being the best they could be until they scored more runs than their opponent. Winning was also more important to Coach Fitz than following the rules, as he apparently encouraged the author to throw illegal "spitballs".
For coaches looking for coaching models, I recommend NFHS Coaches' Quarterly.
Book Review: Should've Been Marketed As An Essay
Summary: 2 Stars
This one got way too much attention from NPR. I loved the interview there with the author, but, quite frankly, his entire story was told in that very sitting. This "book" is really an "essay" that doesn't deserve all the paper it's printed on; I would've been much more appreciative of this author's sentiments had it been marketed more appropriately.Book Review: Good idea didn't translate into a book
Summary: 1 Stars
I like the idea that Michael Lewis wrote this book/article to defend a man whose coaching techniques are clearly out of style in todays world of my child this and my child that. Having said that I did not like this book:
1) the writing was chopping and hard to follow at times. i had to re-read many sentences to understand lewis' point.
2) the story lacked the depth of lewis' other wonderful books - where's the who/why/what that lewis used to moneyball (and others) educational - i wanted the story behind the story.
3) who were all the pictures of? i found them distracting...
i'll continue to read lewis' books bu thope the next one is better
Book Review: Target Audience Young Adults
Summary: 4 Stars
I differ with previous reviews lamenting the brevity of the book. Obviously, adults reading the book were thinking in terms of adults. I read the book thinking about my 12-year old grandson and felt it was a perfect book to send him at this stage in his life.
This is exactly the type of book you would want to send your grandchildren or have your own children read.
It sends a powerful message and being written by someone having been coached by this person at the age of 13 makes it even more valid.
It may be short, but that's the beauty of it. It keeps your interest, gets the point across and leaves you wishing for more or better yet, offers the opportunity for discussion with young adults.
Book Review: Will leave you wanting this coach for your children!
Summary: 5 Stars
MONEYBALL by Michael Lewis was one of the best baseball
books that I have ever read . . . so when I saw the author
had another book out, COACH, I made it a point to get
and read that one too . . . and I wasn't disappointed, though
it is radically different from his earlier effort.
MONEYBALL dealt with the economics of professional
baseball as it is played today . . . COACH is the story
of the author's coach when he was in high school who now--because
he hasn't changed his approach--isn't completely understood by
his players or their parents . . . in fact, many even want to
see him replaced.
And that's a shame because as Lewis notes, [he was] "a man trying
to give boys a sense that their lives could be something other than
ordinary."
Others have that same opinion, too, including Peyton Manning who
might be the highest-paid player in pro football:
"As far as the respect and admiration I feel for the man, I couldn't put
it into words. Just incredibly strong. For me, personally, he prepared me
for so much of what I faced at the college and pro level. Unlike some
coaches--for whom it's all about winning and losing--Coach Fitz was
trying to make men out of people. I think he prepares you for life. And, if
you want my opinion,? the people who are screwing up high school sports
are the parents. The parents who want their son to be the next Michael
Jordan. Or the parent who beats up the coach, or gets into a fight in the
stands. Here's a coach who is so intense. Yet he's never laid a hand
on anybody."
My only complaint about COACH is that it is quite short--only
91 pages, in fact, in a 5" x 7" format . . . it left me wanting to read
more about Lewis' high school days and how he described
them . . . such as in the following passage:
Graduating from Babe Ruth to the varsity with only the slightest physical
justification ( I now resembled less a scoop of vanilla ice cream than a
rounder Hobbit) meant coping with an out-of-control hormonal arms race.
A few of our players had sprouted sideburns; but the enemy retaliated
by growing terrifying little goatees and showing up at games with wives
and, on one shocking occasion, children. I still had no muscles, and no
facial hair, but I did have my own odor. I smelled, pretty much all the time,
like Ben-Gay. I wore the stuff on my perpetually sore right shoulder and
elbow. I wore it, also, on the bill of my cap, where Fitz had taught me
to put it, to generate the grease for a spitball that might just compensate
for my pathetic fastball. Everywhere I went that year, I emitted a vaguely
medicinal vapor; and it is the smell of Ben-Gay I associate with what
happened next.