Ball Crazy: Confessions of a Dad-Coach

Questioning and discovery are at the heart of Hal Jacobs's BALL CRAZY: Confessions of a Dad-Coach. Throughout the course of his son's twelve-year-old baseball season, he reflects on the gap between his son's youth baseball experience - that of uniforms, regimen, pressure - and his own childhood, growing up playing sandlot in Florida with a palm tree as a backstop and a road running through the outfield. He also struggles with his inadequacies as a "real baseball man": is he pushing young Henry too hard or not hard enough, and what lessons do children learn from over-organized youth sports as opposed to sandlot pickup games? One thing for sure, this season represents a sweet spot in the dynamic between father and son. How is it possible that such a simple game can create such a deep connection? BALL CRAZY is also an honest look at the effect of competitive youth sports on both the players and the parents, on their psychological and physical health. Each year, about 11 million children participate in youth baseball leagues such as the PONY Association, and the Little League World Series reaches a worldwide audience of millions every August. Moreover, the book will speak to parents of boys and girls playing other sports as well. Hal Jacobs is a writer and editor at Emory University. He is a former book review columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, writing a column called "Reading the South." In addition to freelance writing for other publications (Creative Loafing, Sherpa Guides, among others) and teaching screenwriting, he has also worked as a ghostwriter on several books. Since his twelve-year-old season, Henry has gone on to bigger and better things-he is now a freshman pitcher at LaGrange College.