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The Year Mom Won the Pennant
a The boys are all hesitant when one boy's mother is the only parent who volunteers to coach their Little League team, but there is quite a surprise in store for them.
147 pages, Paperback
First published April 30, 1973
9 people are currently reading
75 people want to read
About the author
Matt Christopher
467 books141 followersMatt Christopher is the writer young readers turn to when they're looking for fast-paced, action-packed sports novels. He is the best-selling author of more than one hundred sports books for young readers.
Matt Christopher is America's bestselling sports writer for children, with more than 100 books and sales approaching six million copies. In 1992, Matt Christopher talked about being a children's book author.
"I became interested in writing when I was 14, a freshman in high school. I was selling magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post, Country Gentleman, and Liberty, and I would read the stories, particularly the adventure and mystery stories, and think how wonderful it would be to be able to write stories and make a living at it. I also read detective, horror, aviation, and sports stories and decided I would try writing them myself.
Determined to sell, I wrote a detective story a week for 40 weeks, finding the time to marry, work, and play baseball and basketball before I sold my first story in 1941, "The Missing Finger Points," for $50 to Detective Story magazine.
After writing and selling children's sports stories to magazines, I decided to write a baseball book for children. I was living in Syracuse, New York at the time, working at General Electric. I spoke about my idea to the branch librarian. She was immediately interested and told me that they needed sports stories badly. So I came up with my first children's book, The Lucky Baseball Bat. I submitted it to Little, Brown, and the book was published in 1954.
I'm sure that playing sandlot baseball and then semiprofessional baseball with a Class C club in the Canadian-American League influenced my writing. I had my own personal experiences, and I saw how other players reacted to plays, to teammates' and fans' remarks and innuendoes, to managers' orders, etc. All these had a great influence on my writing. My love of the game helped a lot, too, of course.
Out of all the books I've written, my favorite is The Kid Who Only Hit Homers. It's a fantasy, but the main character in it could be real. There are a lot of boys who would love to play baseball but, for some reason, cannot. The only difference between a real-life boy and Sylvester Coddmyer III is the appearance of a character named George Baruth, whom only Sylvester can see and who helps Sylvester become a good ballplayer.
I've written many short stories and books for both children and adults, and find that writing for children is really my niche. Being the eldest of nine children (seven boys and two girls), I've lived through a lot of problems many children live through, and I find these problems excellent examples to include in my books.
Sports have made it possible for me to meet many people with all sorts of life stories, on and off the field, and these are grist for this writer's mill. I'm far beyond playing age now, but I manage to go to both kids' and adult games just to keep up with them, and keep them fresh in my mind.Very few things make me happier than receiving fan letters from boys and girls who write that they had never cared for reading until they started to read my books. That is just about the ultimate in writing for children. I would never trade it for another profession."
Matt Christopher died on September 27, 1997. His legacy is now being carried on by his sons, Duane and Dale Christopher.
Matt Christopher is America's bestselling sports writer for children, with more than 100 books and sales approaching six million copies. In 1992, Matt Christopher talked about being a children's book author.
"I became interested in writing when I was 14, a freshman in high school. I was selling magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post, Country Gentleman, and Liberty, and I would read the stories, particularly the adventure and mystery stories, and think how wonderful it would be to be able to write stories and make a living at it. I also read detective, horror, aviation, and sports stories and decided I would try writing them myself.
Determined to sell, I wrote a detective story a week for 40 weeks, finding the time to marry, work, and play baseball and basketball before I sold my first story in 1941, "The Missing Finger Points," for $50 to Detective Story magazine.
After writing and selling children's sports stories to magazines, I decided to write a baseball book for children. I was living in Syracuse, New York at the time, working at General Electric. I spoke about my idea to the branch librarian. She was immediately interested and told me that they needed sports stories badly. So I came up with my first children's book, The Lucky Baseball Bat. I submitted it to Little, Brown, and the book was published in 1954.
I'm sure that playing sandlot baseball and then semiprofessional baseball with a Class C club in the Canadian-American League influenced my writing. I had my own personal experiences, and I saw how other players reacted to plays, to teammates' and fans' remarks and innuendoes, to managers' orders, etc. All these had a great influence on my writing. My love of the game helped a lot, too, of course.
Out of all the books I've written, my favorite is The Kid Who Only Hit Homers. It's a fantasy, but the main character in it could be real. There are a lot of boys who would love to play baseball but, for some reason, cannot. The only difference between a real-life boy and Sylvester Coddmyer III is the appearance of a character named George Baruth, whom only Sylvester can see and who helps Sylvester become a good ballplayer.
I've written many short stories and books for both children and adults, and find that writing for children is really my niche. Being the eldest of nine children (seven boys and two girls), I've lived through a lot of problems many children live through, and I find these problems excellent examples to include in my books.
Sports have made it possible for me to meet many people with all sorts of life stories, on and off the field, and these are grist for this writer's mill. I'm far beyond playing age now, but I manage to go to both kids' and adult games just to keep up with them, and keep them fresh in my mind.Very few things make me happier than receiving fan letters from boys and girls who write that they had never cared for reading until they started to read my books. That is just about the ultimate in writing for children. I would never trade it for another profession."
Matt Christopher died on September 27, 1997. His legacy is now being carried on by his sons, Duane and Dale Christopher.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 14, 2017
This book is smooth but not spectacular when the season of the Thunderballs baseball team is chronicled. The title of course gives away the ending, so the interesting part is the journey to the end of the season. It is an unusual year for the Thunderballs baseball team, the men that coached the team in earlier years simply cannot do it this year. At the start of the season when it looks like there will be no team as they need a coach, Nick’s mom stepped up and agreed to be their coach.
The book was originally published in 1968, so the concept of a female baseball coach was far more unusual then as it is now. Nick and his friends are at first uncomfortable with her and must be coached to address her as “Coach.” She turns out to be very knowledgeable about the game, her strategies often turn out to be correct. The story is good, it keeps your interest as the circumstances play out but is in no way riveting.
One very unusual feature that is an anomaly appears on page 134. In that image, coach mom is sitting on the bench with the players and is wearing a dress. Even in the 1960’s women that coached sports teams wore pants when they were outside and active.
The book was originally published in 1968, so the concept of a female baseball coach was far more unusual then as it is now. Nick and his friends are at first uncomfortable with her and must be coached to address her as “Coach.” She turns out to be very knowledgeable about the game, her strategies often turn out to be correct. The story is good, it keeps your interest as the circumstances play out but is in no way riveting.
One very unusual feature that is an anomaly appears on page 134. In that image, coach mom is sitting on the bench with the players and is wearing a dress. Even in the 1960’s women that coached sports teams wore pants when they were outside and active.
January 10, 2020
In this book the baseball team the Thunderballs has a new coach and is the mom of Nick Vassey the main character of the book. The team has to adjust to the new coach. The mom had watched baseball and knew what she was doing but had never coached baseball. it was a challenge.
The book can make the reader happy because the team was expected to lose and had a new coach and still won the pennant. It can make the reader sad because Wayne wanted to quit baseball because he thought he sucked. Then he practiced in his backyard and got better and that could make the reader happy.
This book is good. The team faces problems and solves them. It is also an interesting book I rate it a 4/5 stars. I like the book because some people thought they were going to lose but they won the pennant. it was not easy or hard to read the book but the book was sometimes boring in some parts of the book. It was predictable in some parts of the book on what may happen next. I like the ending of the book of them winning the whole thing. I can relate to this book when in the book Wayne accidentally slept in a tent outside and a lot of people were searching for him and then they found him.
The book can make the reader happy because the team was expected to lose and had a new coach and still won the pennant. It can make the reader sad because Wayne wanted to quit baseball because he thought he sucked. Then he practiced in his backyard and got better and that could make the reader happy.
This book is good. The team faces problems and solves them. It is also an interesting book I rate it a 4/5 stars. I like the book because some people thought they were going to lose but they won the pennant. it was not easy or hard to read the book but the book was sometimes boring in some parts of the book. It was predictable in some parts of the book on what may happen next. I like the ending of the book of them winning the whole thing. I can relate to this book when in the book Wayne accidentally slept in a tent outside and a lot of people were searching for him and then they found him.
November 19, 2017
Great book
August 4, 2020
The lesson I learned was to always be prepared no matter what
June 24, 2016
Solid book with some good solid messages and showing a good family. I wish the adults in the book would look down on the poor sportsmanship many of the athletes show, but it is a lot more likeable than most of the stuff we see from professionals.
October 18, 2010
It was weird.
September 22, 2013
You can pretty much figure out how the story will end based off the title alone; other than that, it was simple and straightforward and full of sports talk that was extremely easy to skim over.
September 11, 2015
The Year Mom Won the Pennant by Matt Christopher I really loved this book because its a great baseball book and it keeps you thinking.I would recommend this book to people who like baseball.
September 11, 2015
This was a good book. This was about a mom who decided to become coach when the old coach leaves. She ends up winning the pennant when no one thought that she could even win.
Want to read
May 11, 2017I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12883821
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/12883821
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews