Coach

The turning point in his life, author Michael Lewis says, came in a baseball game when he was 14 years old. With the game on the line, his coach, an irascible man along the lines of basketball coach Bob Knight (but without the swearing and bullying), gave the young pitcher the ball. Lewis wasn't able to thank him then but does it with this book decades later. He describes the coach's life, the apocryphal stories that grew up around him, and the change in the atmosphere of youth sports today. It is this last point that is the author's strongest. While coaches like Fitz remain as stern taskmasters, parents no longer tolerate criticism of their kids. The author is adequate as narrator. His diction is crisp, and his pacing is good. R.C.G. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine