Making It Home

Life Lessons from a Season of Little League

By: Teresa Strasser

Narrated by: Teresa Strasser

Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

"This is a story about a team that becomes a family and a family that becomes a team. . . a wonderful book ."—Cal Ripken, Jr.

"A MUST READ!"—USA TODAY (ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2023)

An achingly heartfelt and surprisingly funny memoir about family, grief, and moving forward.

When her brother dies from cancer, and then her mother just four months later, Teresa Strasser has no one to mourn with but her irresponsible, cantankerous, trailerpark-dwelling father. He claims not to remember her chaotic childhood, but he’s a devoted grandpa, so as her son embarks on his first season pitching in Little League, Teresa and Nelson form a grief group of two in beach chairs lined up behind the first base line.

There are no therapeutically trained facilitators and no rules other than those dictated by the Little League of America, and the human heart. For Teresa and her father, the stages of grief are the draft, the regular season, and the playoffs. One season of baseball becomes the framework for a memoir about family, loss, and the fundamentals of baseball and life. They cheer, talk smack about other teams, scream at each other in the parking lot, and care way too much about Little League.

Making It Home is a bracingly honest journey through grief, self-doubt, and anxiety armed with humor and optimism. After all, America’s pastime may be just a game, but it always leaves room for redemption, even at the bottom of the lineup.

©2023 Teresa Strasser (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"It’s a perfect book for fans of baseball, and also wonderful for those who aren’t.”—Good Housekeeping

“Baseball has always been a way for people to come together. In Making It Home Teresa and her father used baseball to come together and work through some of the most difficult circumstances we can imagine. This is a story about a team that becomes a family and a family that becomes a team. It is a wonderful book that powerfully captures how we work through life’s challenges with baseball as a backdrop.”–Cal Ripken, Jr.

“[D]elightful. . .excellent, beautiful. . . .You’re gonna love this book.”—Mike Rowe, bestselling author, podcaster, host of Dirty Jobs

Keeping it real with tears and laughter

After hearing Teresa share a part of her story on Mike Rowe’s podcast I knew I needed to give the whole book a listen. I am so glad I did. As a Christ-follower who believes in the hope of an eternity, it was powerful and enlightening to hear the heart of someone with a different faith-perspective mourning the loss of loved ones.
The baseball mom aspect had me in stitches as I am THAT MOM cheering on my boys. The complex family dynamics had me thinking about my own family’s story and how it has made me the person I am. I was laughing with full out snorts one moment and found tears in my eyes the next.
I will definitely be listening to this one again.
Just a heads up - There is quite a bit of swearing throughout, so just keep that in mind if listening with little ears around.

Great storytelling

This book is both deep and breezy. It covers heavy topics like death, trauma, forgiving when it’s hard, with a sense of humor and humility, like talking to a friend over coffee. Highly recommend!

Beautiful real-life grief and baseball story

Teresa is a gifted writer. She shares her unconventional upbringing and how it affected her relationships with her parents and her beloved brother. Take all this and add an exciting little league season with Teresa and her dad Nelson nervously watching from the outfield slowly coming to terms with some heavy grief and even a little repair of their complicated relationship. Great book.

I’m only 4 chapters in and it’s already one of my favorites!

I can’t wait to finish this gem. I’m only 4 chapters in and I’ve already cried a dozen times.
Please do yourself a favor and download this book ASAP.

Excellent story of love and grief

This was such an excellent read! I started and finished it in 24 hours. I love sports but even if you do not this is about relationships, life, death, grief and forgiveness. It is in it’s own way a love story between a father and daughter. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.

Tragedy & Triumph

Teresa reminds us that there is crying in baseball as she works through the loss of her brother & mother within the framework of one magical little league baseball season in the Valley of the Sun. Get into the box, don’t step in the bucket, & take a good cut as Teresa & her dad process love, loss, family baggage, and ultimately joy and the hope of another season.

THIS is how you narrate a damn audiobook!!

Let’s put aside for a second that this book is a laugh-out-loud AND cry-your-makeup off masterpiece, and just focus on the narrator’s performance. The author has EXCEPTIONAL comedic timing, which you don’t expect in a memoir about death and grieving. And she delivers the heavier material in a way that’s never maudlin or manipulative. Every tear is earned, and there’s not a false note in the whole thing. Most remarkable is the way she slips into and out of the different characters in the story, and right back to her pleasant narrator voice in perfect stride. It’s like you’re watching a great one-woman off-Broadway show AND being read a bedtime story at the same time. Getting to listen to this beautiful work of art for only 1 credit feels like stealing.

Painful, touching and redemptive

Knowing the public persona I knew the author to be bright and quick witted, but I did not know the depth of her story. Because I hate cliches I will just say that the book is moving and relevant to the untold numbers of us who always had food at home but often not much else. .

Brilliant, heartfelt and hilarious!

This book tells the story of how a father and daughter process the loss of their son/brother throughout a little league baseball season. Strasser has a unique ability to use clever word pictures to convey loss while making you laugh out loud. Highly recommended!

Helped me make it home

I very much enjoyed this book. Easy read filled with humor and life lessons. I found my self cheering for the boys and the adults.