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At the Plate with...Marc McGwire
At the start of the 1998 major league baseball season, St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Mark McGwire hit a home run. In the games that followed, he did it again. And again. And again. And again. By the end of the season, in late September, he had done the hardest thing in baseball an earth-shattering seventy times. He didn't just break the decades-old single-season home-run record set by Roger Maris in 1961-he shattered it. And by doing so, he not only set a new benchmark for players to strive for, but also reminded people that baseball is fun, a game to be enjoyed, with heroes who play for the love of the sport, not for the love of money. In this powerful biography of the most talked-about man in baseball, Matt Christopher, the number one sports series for kids, explores the slugger's childhood days on the diamond as well as the ups and downs of his college and professional career. For more information on the Matt Christopher Sports Bio Bookshelf, please see the last pages of this book.
128 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1999
About the author
Matt Christopher
452 books146 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 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 3, 2009
you should read this book
April 24, 2017
April
At the Plate With Mark McGwire
Matt Christopher
Have you ever wondered who hit the most home runs in a single season? The answer is Mark McGwire. He became famous for his skill at baseball, being a slugger, and shattering Roger Maris's home run record for a single season. He became a great baseball player when he started to play little league as a kid. His talent progressed all the way through collage. There, he was a power hitting first baseman and pitcher. He was even so good, he went on to play for the Oakland Athletics in the big leagues. He played on the A's all the way through 1997, and went through hitting streaks, slumps, and injuries. The Blue Jays and Cardinals expressed interest in him because of his power, and signed with the Cardinals. Then in 1998, he did the unthinkable. He broke the 37-year old record for most home runs in a single season. He shattered it by 70 homers. After injuries and other self-downing things, he stayed within himself and made history.
In this book, lots of things happen to Mark that could have ended his season, but he didn't give up. One main idea of this book is to not give up and stay within yourself. This is a big main idea because when Mark went through injuries, he felt like quitting his baseball career, but he didn't give up and got strong enough to come back and play baseball. If he did give up, he would never of broken the record of most home runs hit in a single season. That is the main idea of this book and is very important because you could still get something good out of not giving up.
At the Plate With Mark McGwire
Matt Christopher
Have you ever wondered who hit the most home runs in a single season? The answer is Mark McGwire. He became famous for his skill at baseball, being a slugger, and shattering Roger Maris's home run record for a single season. He became a great baseball player when he started to play little league as a kid. His talent progressed all the way through collage. There, he was a power hitting first baseman and pitcher. He was even so good, he went on to play for the Oakland Athletics in the big leagues. He played on the A's all the way through 1997, and went through hitting streaks, slumps, and injuries. The Blue Jays and Cardinals expressed interest in him because of his power, and signed with the Cardinals. Then in 1998, he did the unthinkable. He broke the 37-year old record for most home runs in a single season. He shattered it by 70 homers. After injuries and other self-downing things, he stayed within himself and made history.
In this book, lots of things happen to Mark that could have ended his season, but he didn't give up. One main idea of this book is to not give up and stay within yourself. This is a big main idea because when Mark went through injuries, he felt like quitting his baseball career, but he didn't give up and got strong enough to come back and play baseball. If he did give up, he would never of broken the record of most home runs hit in a single season. That is the main idea of this book and is very important because you could still get something good out of not giving up.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews