Andrew Blauner - Coach: 25 Writers Reflect on People Who Made a Difference

Compilation copyright 2005 by Andrew Blauner

Foreword by Bill Bradley

Preface 2015 by David Duchovny

The Old Man 2005 by George Vecsey

Why Be Last, Son? 2005 by E. M. Swift

Excerpt from My Losing Season by Pat Conroy, copyright 2002 by Pat Conroy. Used by permission of Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.

When I Was Young 2005 by Buzz Bissinger

Passing It On excerpt from First Shot from Hoop Roots by John Edgar Wideman.

Copyright 2001 by John Edgar Wideman. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Prudent Fitness: A Panegyric 2005 by Andrew Solomon

VBK excerpt from Profile from A Sense of Where You Are by John McPhee. Copyright 1965, 1978 by John McPhee. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.

Physical Education 2005 by Francine Prose

Underdog by John Irving, copyright 1996 by Garp Enterprises. Reprinted from The Imaginary Girlfriend by John Irving, published by Arcade Publishing, New York, New York.

Something Special 2005 by Thomas Beller

Ironing 2005 by Charles McGrath

The Coach Who Wasnt There 2005 by David Maraniss

The Depression Baby by Frank Deford. Reprinted courtesy of Sports Illustrated: Welcome to His World by Frank Deford, November 29, 1976. Copyright 1976. Time Inc. All rights reserved.

Golf Lessons 2003 by George Plimpton, reprinted by permission of Sarah Plimpton.

Tripp Lake 2005 by Lauren Slater

The Last of the Great Dreamers 2005 by Tour

The Boy They Cut 2005 by Benjamin Cheever

To Althea, From the Net 2005 by Robert Lipsyte

Coaching Bob 2005 by Jane Leavy

The Duel 2005 by Jonathan Ames

Our Miss O 2005 by Christine Brennan

Making It to the Majors 2005 by Bob Wolff

Back to Basics 2005 by Ira Berkow

Fit to Be Tied 2005 by Bud Collins

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ISBN 978-0-446-51460-6

E3

For my mother and my father
For Amanda

BY BILL BRADLEY

LEADERSHIP MEANS GETTING PEOPLE TO THINK, believe, see, and do what they might not have without you. It means possessing the vision to set the right goal and the decisiveness to pursue it single-mindedly. It means being aware of the fears and anxieties felt by those you lead even as you urge them to overcome those fears. A great coach embodies these qualities and transforms them into a force that can effect powerful changes in those they lead.

My high school coach, the only man who would ever be the coach to me, was like a monk, withdrawn personally and unsociable in town circles; unreachable by the power of the company, the church, the bank, or the mayor; rigid with discipline and sparse with compliments; inspiring to boys like me, cruel to those unprepared or unwilling. Never did he confuse his roles. He was not the college counselor, family adviser, tutor, athletic businessman, or budding politician. He aspired only to be the coach. It was a calling. If in my years as a New York Knick there would be thousands of words written about passing and teamwork and hitting the open man, it would not be new. It would be the coachs game, which by age seventeen was second nature to me.

The really great coaches engage their players in a quest to be the best. Some bark their orders; others are more like machines, with a clipboard full of practice drills. In the right player-coach relationship, a quiet well done can go a long way. By talking candidly about the problems of adolescence or the vagaries of the parent-child relationship some high school coaches extend their reach to life off the court. Their players may never become pros, but because they learned the values of the game they are better prepared for life. Many people in all walks of life will tell you that their lives were turned around by a coach who took an interest in their total well-being. But, no matter your relationship with that person who will always be the coach for you, you will hear their words like a record every time you meet challenges or set out to accomplish goals. It is only then that you fully realize how they shaped you and how their vision still drives you.

In this book you will find powerful stories about the ways in which a coach changed the direction of someones life and coaxed that person into taking a harder, more rewarding path. There are also a few recollections of coaches who had a negative effect on an individuals life. As you read the words of each writer, you will see that the story of a coach and their player serves as an allegory that illustrates the most basic, but most important aspects of human interaction. These individual stories taken together form a narrative of value that shows us the powerful reward of vision, hard work and the belief that together we can be something bigger and better than if we never listened to, learned from or engaged with the people we encounter in our lives.

BILL BRADLEY has been a three-time basketball All-America at Princeton, an Olympic gold medalist, a Rhodes scholar, and a professional player for ten years with the New York Knicks during which time they won two NBA championships. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1979 to 1997, and in 2000 he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. He is the author of several books, including Life on the Run and Values of the Game.

BY GEORGE VECSEY

THE OLD MAN TALKS TO ME EVERY DAY, in that raspy whisky voice of his.

He would clamp his paw on your forearm, like one of those so-called Denver Boots the police put on the tires of illegally parked cars. You could not pry him off.

Wait a minute, he would bellow. Im trying to tell you something.

What was Casey Stengel trying to tell us? Usually, something practical relating to baseball, but often it was about the weirdness of baseball, the intricacies of it, like life itself.

The Old Man used to say, Every day in baseball you see something you never saw before.

Early in the 2004 season, on national television, Roger Clemens of the Houston Astros was pitching to Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants. The broadcasters said it was the first time in baseball history that a pitcher with 300 victories had ever pitched to a slugger with 600 home runs.

Right away I thought: The Old Man.

It happens a lot. A ball takes a squirrelly path, a player commits a gaffe, and I find myself muttering, Ive never quite seen that before.

Strange things happened around Casey, and he was alive enough and alert enough to sputter or laugh about them.

Of all the managers and coaches Ive been around, Casey Stengel taught me the most. I was part of that motley band Casey called my writers. Some of his ballplayers were wise enough to learn from him, too.