Some thoughts after reading some of David Halberstam’s Summer of ’49 — published in 1988. Great read and brings up a lot of players who were at the start of their career in 1949 and were famous when I was playing little league. Fun to hear about their start.
I love seeing the parallels to today’s game and talk about how the players learned the game.
Most of them just played eternally when they were little and were discovered as just superstar local players.
Love the commentary on Ted Williams and how he always asked the preceding hitter for information on the pitcher. How fast was the pitch, how accurate, how much is the ball moving.
There are some things you can take away as a little league coach. Resilience. Communication.
Favorite story is when a player didn’t run out a fly ball and a bunch of players jumped on them (verbally). It is true, my best teams have had players who were like coaches on the field and players tend to listen more to other players. IF you can get your team to support your goals and help motivate other team members you’ll find a lot more success than just you yelling stuff from the sideline.
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