Coach

Lessons on the Game of Life

By: Michael Lewis

Narrated by: Michael Lewis

“There are teachers with a rare ability to enter a child’s mind;
it’s as if their ability to get there at all gives them the right to stay forever.”

There was a turning point in Michael Lewis’s life, in a baseball game when he was fourteen years old. The irascible and often terrifying Coach Fitz put the ball in his hand with the game on the line and managed to convey such confident trust in Lewis’ ability that the boy had no choice but to live up to it. “I didn’t have words for it then, but I do now: I am about to show the world, and myself, what I can do.”

The coach’s message was not simply about winning, but about self-respect, sacrifice, courage, and endurance. In some ways, and even now, thirty years later, Lewis still finds himself trying to measure up to what Coach Fitz expected of him.©2005 Michael Lewis; (P)2005 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

powerful story

Story of a man with strong character who cares deeply about other people. He used tough love to help shape boys into men. Often a thankless but noble journey. A short listen and great true story.

Fantastic book

Every parent, coach, and kid should read this book. Kids aren’t forced to expect challenges by teachers and schools that offer non-challenging with easy A’s. Too often that is what happens at the college level. Students expect A’s for paying tuition and professors fear not giving high grades. I’ve even had parents who call me about the low grade I deservedly gave to a college student.

As Always

Michael Lewis goes back to his New Orleans high school where his old coach Billy Fitzgerald has come under fire from his player's parents and is in danger of losing his position. Lewis then takes on the attitude of the players millennial parents; one that tells them it is their duty to remove both obstacles and consequences from their son's paths. Ultimately Fitzgerald retained his coaching job until February 2014. It was also this project that brought Lewis together with his old high school teammate Sean Tuohy; which led to the bestseller "The Blind Side" which of course became the hit movie "The Blind Side." The sale price of 2.95 makes this a fantastic bargain.

Too Pat?

I get it, and I agree with the problems with today’s kids and their parents.
I understand that Lewis greatly benefitted from Fitz’s methods. His audience for the story is wealthy parents, and that’s too small.
For example, what about the kids who face an abusive coach who doesn’t actually know anything about either kids or baseball? Or, in my experience, the coaches who only play the attractive, aggressive jocks, and never teach or attempt to develop the shy, timid players?
I love Michael Lewis, but this one isn’t his best, and I think Fitz probably deserved more.

Short, good sentimentality.

A short little tribute to Coach. Very conversational story. Enjoyed the point of the author.