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Reviews
One Shot at Forever: A Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season by Chris Ballard
reader4evr's review
3.0
I'm glad that I switched over to the audiobook. A fun history of Central IL that I didn't know about but discovered a lot of fun tidbits.
Boys at school are really going to like this!
Boys at school are really going to like this!
the_enobee's review against another edition
4.0
If you enjoy reading baseball books, this is a can't miss. Nice and short too, and the people involved with the Macon Ironmen are a joy to read about. Highly recommended.
pjgal22's review against another edition
4.0
This book was an unexpected pleasure. Went to the library looking for an audiobook about baseball, and this was one of the few available. So glad I decided to give it a try. Great story about the Macon Ironmen, a small town baseball team from Illinois with a very unorthodox coach, and their unlikely journey to the state championship game in 1971. If you love baseball or underdogs or both, you should check this one out. The narrator, Mike Chamberlain, does a great job too, making a great story even more enjoyable.
jenleah's review against another edition
5.0
This book came along at just the right time for me. It isn't a new book, but I just heard about it-- this year that my son plays baseball in Central Illinois, where this story takes place.
Such a great story of an unlikely team and their unconventional coach, from tiny Macon, IL, just a few miles from where I live. I'd never heard of the 1971 Ironmen from Macon, but I'm so glad I know about them now. Fun book to read, loved the references, and loved this true baseball story.
Such a great story of an unlikely team and their unconventional coach, from tiny Macon, IL, just a few miles from where I live. I'd never heard of the 1971 Ironmen from Macon, but I'm so glad I know about them now. Fun book to read, loved the references, and loved this true baseball story.
johanna620's review against another edition
4.0
Great book for summer reading. Baseball in smalltown Illinois, 1970. Loved the nostalgia of it all and the simplicity of baseball on that team.
blevins's review against another edition
5.0
This is my favorite baseball related book I've read in a long, long time. Chris Ballard does a terrific job transporting the reader back to the early 1970s and in small-town Illinois as we get to know a group of players and their remarkable coach over a few years. I grew up in a various small-towns in Oklahoma [smallest was Okay] and was in love with the sport of baseball. I related. Ballard weaves in stories of the players, their parents, teachers, the differences between teams, the Vietnam War era and all kinds of topics to really flesh out the story. I was on the edge of my seat rooting for these kids!
I don't know if the rights to this has been purchased but I see this as a future movie. Unfortunately, it'll probably be a Disney sports film stripped of the edge of the socio, political and economic issues facing the coach [an amazing character named LC Sweet], players and town, but it will be a movie all the same. There could be a Bad News Bears style gem made from this book instead of the cliched, Disney-fied version that is likely going to come our way.
I don't know if the rights to this has been purchased but I see this as a future movie. Unfortunately, it'll probably be a Disney sports film stripped of the edge of the socio, political and economic issues facing the coach [an amazing character named LC Sweet], players and town, but it will be a movie all the same. There could be a Bad News Bears style gem made from this book instead of the cliched, Disney-fied version that is likely going to come our way.
juliannakearn's review against another edition
5.0
I can’t believe a book made me happy that the Braves won the World Series.
resslesa's review against another edition
5.0
Amazing! Mt. Auvdel coaches baseball in the 1970's -a great true story-everyone should read it!
jonesannleslie's review
4.0
Lynn Sweet is the coach I wish I could be. Not so much because his team won, but rather because he had such an amazing impact on the students he coached and taught.