Joy in Mudville: A Little League Memoir

by Greg Mitchell

It's a classic American rite of passage. It's Little League® baseball...and coaching his son's team gave one father a profound and hilarious perspective on the suburban field of dreams. Managing his son's wildly unpredictable Little League through two nail-biting seasons and a dramatic playoff showdown, Greg Mitchell (who once played baseball with Bruce Springsteen) learned as much about baseball as he did about today's kids, about parenting -- and about adult involvement in a game played by and meant for kids. With humor and wisdom, Mitchell captures a colorful cast of characters, outrageous anecdotes, and the pleasures and pitfalls faced by players and their coaches. Commenting on timely issues -- the phenomenon of "Little League rage" and the role of youth sports in our electronic age -- Mitchell scores with a memorable protrait of a father-son experience like no other.

Genres: Baseball

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Greg Mitchell (born 1947) is the author of more than a dozen books. His new book (2020) is "The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood--and America--Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" (The New Press). His previous book, from Crown, has been optioned for a major movie. It is titled "The Tunnels" and explores daring escape tunnels under the Berlin Wall in 1962--and the JFK White House attempts to kill NBC and CBS coverage of them at the height of nuclear tensions.

Mitchell has blogged on the media and politics, for The Nation. and at his own blog, Pressing Issjes. He was the editor of Editor & Publisher (E&P), from 2002 to the end of 2009, and long ago was executive editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. His book "The Campaign of the Century" won the Goldsmith Book Prize and "Tricky Dick and the Pink Lady" was a New York Times Notable Book for 1998. He has also co-authored two books with Robert Jay Lifton, along with a "So Wrong For So Long" about the media and Iraq. His books have been optioned numerous times for movies (including "Joy in Mudville" by Tim Hanks). He has served as chief adviser to two award-winning documentaries and currently is co-producer of an upcoming film on Beethoven with his co-author on "Journeys With Beethoven."

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a scrappy, lively group of characters but could have used more about Little Stevie Wonder aka the homeless kid. The real MVP of this book!

[Badly Drawn Girl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Greg Mitchell does a wonderful job of taking his experience as coach for a Little League team and relating it to changes in the sport, in parenting, and the high pressure cooker that has become common to both. This isn't just a recap of one team's season. Their season is used as the springboard to bigger topics. As a former Little Leaguer I enjoyed the reminiscing that came from reading about his team's exploits on the field. But as a mother and an educator, I find the information and statistics useful and disturbing. How did a game that was played by neighborhood kids with roundish objects standing in for the ball, and various sticks acting as bats become so serious. Many Little League players are under a ridiculous amount of pressure from their parents, their coaches, and really society itself. I recommend this for anyone involved in youth sports, whether as a coach, a parent, or a fan.

[Tyler Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Greg Mitchell writes about his avid love of the game of baseball through his coaching experience with his son. One season can really sum up what little league baseball is all about.

[Jeremy Snow · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of fun to read. I found myself as wrapped up in the outcome as any world series. Definitely worth reading if you enjoy baseball.