Little League, Big Dreams (Hardcover)

by Euchner (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Even those with only a passing interest in baseball will be intrigued by this fascinating look at Little League, "the largest amateur sports organization in the world." The book and its unsparing look at the harsh reality of youth sports just might pique the interest of parents whose kids play in the more than 8,000 officially sanctioned League teams. Utilizing extensive interviews with current and former players and coaches and a no-frills sports writing style that captures both the excitement and the nuances of the game, Euchner (Last Nine Innings) follows teams ranging from Hawaii to Florida who competed in the 10-day 2005 Little League World Series. Throughout his exhaustive coverage, he rarely loses sight of the League's main problem, "the professionalism of childhood, the development of leagues and tournaments that turn sports into a fulltime job before a kid grows any facial hair." Euchner succeeds at presenting the impressive intensity of 12-year-old athletes while also showing the sad fact that young pitchers who could be Major League stars "never make it because they blow their arms out in Little League." (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
In The Last Nine Innings (2005), Euchner put major league baseball under an analytic microscope; here, he dissects Little League. The setting is the 2005 Little League World Series, which turned out to be a real nail-biter and one of the most exciting series the small town of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, has ever seen. Although Euchner admits that Little League has done good things for kids and baseball, his overarching argument here is that kids were better off with street pickup games than the overly organized, overly competitive world of formal Little League. Moreover, he contends that the sport has become too focused on adults: it's the adults who crave the championships, who push kids beyond their physical capabilities, who take the fun out of the game. He gives coaches (and parents) their due--the sacrifice of time and money, after all, is mighty--but he challenges us to consider what the world would be like if all that energy were put into more altruistic endeavors, such as rebuilding the Gulf coast. "Give the game back to the kids," Euchner pleads. Adults, take heed. Mary Frances Wilkens
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.; 1 edition (August 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402206615
• ISBN-13: 978-1402206610
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,096,055 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Little League - too much pressure on the Kids, September 14, 2006

By	Nicedawg (california) - See all my reviews

This is an excellent book on the inner happenings of Little League Baseball. I really enjoyed the candid assesments of how parents and managers go overboard. The book though is not a bashing of the little league faults - it gives inside looks at what happens at williamsport and the teams...I really enjoyed the stories about the ugly rivalry between California and Florida and how Dante Bichette Sr. got out of control - also the stories about Curacao and Japan and how serious they take the game - the stories about the pitcher's not resting their arms and getting major injuries is a wake up...
Finally, the story centers on Hawaii and how they built their team swithcing from Pony to Little League - and how they practiced so hard - 6 days a week! Great stories about Little league baseball and how Travel teams are so much better and talented (cooperstown baseball)...
if you enjoy youth baseball - you'll love this book

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A League of Their Own, October 7, 2008

By	Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Little League, Big Dreams (Paperback)

This will be a perfect book for my little brother, who loved baseball so much when we were kids that he decided to up and move to Cooperstown soon as he got himself mobile.

Maybe if he had read it back then, he would have change dhis mind and moved on down to Williamsport, PA, the city that by some freak chance became the site of the annual Little League World Series. Charles Euchner paints the area in lavish descriptive terms, nestled in the shadow of the Alleghenies and with a beautifully preserved old downtown area, though one that's sadly underpopulated due to increased globalism and outsourcing of manufacturing and sales. No wonder the populace are all so into their annual event which draws hundred of thousands of spectators.

Euchner describes the origins of Little League and takes us to a meeting of the very first Little Leaguers at a local restaurant where the oldtimers gather every year to eat and swap stories about working with the original inventor, Carl Stotz.

He's an interesting reporter, though sometimes annoyingly vague: "Newsreels produced by the maker of the classic film 'Lost Horizon' carried an account of the second tournament in 1948." Does this mean that Frank Capra filmed the newsreel? If not Capra, then who? There's nowhere to turn because the book hasn't been footnoted.

Euchner makes an impassioned plea to dismantle the Little League by showing how it has turned a generation of kids into little monsters who live for the camera and don't care about moral issues like steroids. Based on the deep sampling of kids interviewed, they think steroid use is cool. Anabolic steroids helps players do better and get on TV more, that's the bottom line. There are no child stars, and yet Little League coaches and parents put such pressure on the kids that they wreck their arms before they reach puberty. It's a grim story of greed and ambition, and yet, by the end, you'll be waving your ball flag high.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Major league preparation. Bush league execution., July 17, 2007

By	David C. Roller (United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was excited to read this book when I saw it at my local library. I had just finished managing my kids' little league t-ball team (5 to 7 year olds) and was ready to read about kids playing at a higher level. I came out of the experience bewildered and disappointed.

Little League, Big Dreams is a jaundiced, uneven account of the little league world series and all of organized youth baseball. Charles Euchner did an excellent job researching the book. However, the writing is disjointed, and the structure of the book is almost impossible to follow. It seems like the book may have started as a series of articles because much information is repeated throughout the book. (How many times does the reader need to be told that Dante Bichette quit major league baseball upon hearing that his son hit his first little league homerun?)

While I agree with many of the points the writer attempted to make in this book, the unevenness throughout does little to bring those points home. In addition, His "Let the kids play" conclusion was too simplistic and not at all developed. Did I mention that Dante Bichette quit major league baseball upon hearing that his son hit his first little league homerun?