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Six Good Innings: How One Small Town Became a Little League Giant | 
 enlarge | Author: Mark Kreidler
Publisher: Harper
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  33 reviews
Sales Rank: 63348
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.7 x 1.1
ISBN: 006147357X
Dewey Decimal Number: 796
EAN: 9780061473579
ASIN: 006147357X
Publication Date: July 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. 100% money back guarantee. All books shipped from Strand Bookstore, New York City, USA.
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Product Description
In the tradition of Friday Night Lights comes an unforgettable portrait of a small New Jersey town that became known throughout the world for the remarkable exploits of its Little League stars. Summertime in Toms River means two things: tourists and champions. The tourists head for the beaches; the 12-year-old Little League champions can be found on the baseball diamonds, where they win titles at the local, regional, and international levels. The Toms River dynasty began in the 1990s, when the team made it to the Little League World Series three times in five years and brought home a historic world championship victory in 1998. But with each passing summer in Toms River comes renewed pressure, as the latest collection of All-Stars strives to leave its mark on the town's imposing baseball legacy. In Six Good Innings, acclaimed sportswriter Mark Kreidler deftly illuminates the sometimes tense relationship between Toms River and the team that carries the town's hopes and dreams. Following the most recent juggernaut through one tumultuous All-Star season, Kreidler chronicles how the coach, John Puleo, works to strike a balance between healthy competition and bloodless ambition, and how the players themselves reckon with their own fleeting fame as they tumble headlong into adolescence. Puleo, a man with a gift for inspiring young athletes, commands a team whose recent string of successes has led to speculation that this might be the squad to extend the Toms River tradition of reaching Williamsport, site of the Little League World Series. But along the path to glory, Puleo's players will deal with unexpected injuries, a brutally difficult schedule of games, and the daunting knowledge that they have been identified throughout their region—and within the neighborhood blocks of their own baseball-crazy town—as the team to beat. With deep empathy, incisive reporting, and intimate access, Kreidler weaves the stories of the coaches, the parents, the fans, and the true boys of summer into a memorable tableau.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 28 more reviews...
Six Good Innings - Tom's River and Little League Baseball Glory August 20, 2008
Six Good Innings: How One Small Town Became a Little League Giant is a story about Tom's River New Jersey little league baseball from both the past and the present. The history of Tom's River little league looms large over the teams of today. For those willing to read through the slow parts, Mr. Kreidler has produced a good story of the present day team. As with all books, the shortcomings need to be put into proper context.
The Story
Toms River's had profound Little League success in the nineties under Coach Gaynor. That precedent meant that when the TRLL team of 2006 won their sectional and went on to the state championship, the 2007 team was already considered a favorite to return to Williamsport once again. Coach Puleo's 2007 team shows promise and has some success, but has to overcome those high expectations as well as several bad breaks.
The first two chapters are meant to give insight into the rivalries between the various teams that have become collectively known as "Tom's River," even though the East teams of the 90s are very different from the Americans featured in the 2007 story. So in that sense, Mr. Kreidler seems to be emphasizing that the perception of "Tom's River" as a baseball monolith is more of a misperception. He goes to great lengths to show that the high expectations are unrealistic given the luck needed to win in the current playoff format.
The story of John Puleo's team from 2006 and 2007 begins to take hold more in chapters two through seven and the epilogue. Those chapters are shorter, easier to digest and flow much better. We get to learn the fire and determination of Johnny and the good heart of Chris. This is the story that many readers probably were hoping would have started with chapter 1.
Baseball strategy is only lightly mentioned when it was relevant to the drama of a specific game. This is more of a human interest story about the players and their families.
ESPN is actually key to the story of Little League baseball and its worldwide spotlight. Till ESPN became a household name, there was no outlet to give Little League baseball such exposure. Tom's River managed to succeed in the early years of that new coverage. To criticize Mr. Kreidler for being an ESPN contributor is unfair. It's akin to criticizing a photographer for having pictures submitted to the associated press. ESPN's coverage is clearly the reason for little league baseball's visibility.
Kreidler makes it clear that Toms River's successes were due to good luck and good timing. No doubt, good players and good coaches helped, but advancing far in the little league tournament essentially adds up to getting the right breaks as well as playing well.
The Criticisms
I must admit that this book was NOT an easy read for me. In fact, I found that while I sometimes read quickly, this book took me almost a month to read 10 to 20 pages at a time. The book starts slow and the early narrative seems to switch between time periods in a disjointed way. Telling the story in chronological order would have made the key elements easier to communicate and understand.
The book also tends to over-document the successes of the past teams to give context to the 2007 team. The first two chapters approach 100 pages of very dense dialogue and repetitious background stories about the Tom's River teams that put the Jersey Shore town on the world's baseball map. It feels dry and lends to confusion because of the early jumping of the timeline from present to past.
The story also goes off on tangents that are not always very enjoyable reading, such as lengthy explanations of the structure and rules of various tournaments. I could somewhat accept it but I knew some readers would be alienated.
Overall these flaws are minor relative to the book's positives.
Conclusion
By the end the book very much redeemed itself. Many others may not reach that finish line and thus may not get to some of the better sections. But if you can power through the slow parts, there is actually a really great story here.
I would actually recommend that those who already know about the Little League Baseball format and the history of Tom's River baseball might want to read chapters 2 through 7 before chapters one and two. Those with no basic understanding will just have to power through those dense foundational chapters first.
If you love baseball and want to learn about the past and present of Tom's River Little League, this book may be for you.
Enjoy!!!
 Amazing story of hard work and guts for kids August 20, 2008
I am impressed with Six Good Innings, having spent time in Toms River and seeing the environment, it is amazing the work that goes into developing the next best Little League team. The timing of this book coming out at the beginnning of the Little League WS is great too. You hear about these young people putting in long hours to become the best in their age group, in their town. Some have historically gone on to the pros. Is this hard work any different than what goes into being a Child Prodigy in Piano or Violin? Great work and encouraging. Worth it for those who want to see their kids get involved in sports.
 Flawed but a book I enjoyed August 17, 2008
I guess the best description of this book's flow and style would be "uneven" and that may put some readers off it entirely. Also, if you aren't already a fan of baseball, you may not like it. I think it does help potential readers to know a bit about relevant parts of a critic's background so I'll add this: I sat through many, many Little League baseball games and had a child who once dreamed of becoming a major league ball player. So I come to this book with that background.
Parts of this book were thoroughly riveting, particularly when the author focused on team activities. However, there were major digressions that were often boring. Not to stretch an analogy too thin here - but I did often feel like I was watching a long ball game at times, one that was stretching way beyond anyone's normal attention span...and I write that as someone who has sat through ball games that had the same effect on me so I have some patience with this. Even so, the book exceeded my patience at times.
But here's the twist - when the author writes well, he is thoroughly engaging, so much so that I'm bound to find more books by him, pick them up and probably read them. I'm cheering him on, hoping he ups his writing style and becomes even better with the next book. Passionate lovers of books about baseball may well enjoy this one. I just did not find it nearly as compelling as I'd hoped but certainly interesting enough to finish it.
Oh, yes....I did share it with my formerly enthusiastic and passionate Little League player, someone who still loves baseball. He felt it was not all that interesting. So take that for what it is worth, too.
Terrific read about small town idealism has lots of heart! August 13, 2008
SIX GOOD INNINGS tells the tale and pretty much carries the flavor of how a small town little league team begins to learn and appreciate their game. Nicely constructed prose from author Kreidler, himself an ESPN guy shows that he knows the feel of a good bat, belting one perfectly on that sweet spot and the resonating sound of getting it right.
Toms River would produce a great group of kids who learn about winning and losing... and winning and losing all over again. The transition from youthful innocence to a wiser bunch of lads who learn how to keep going on is a compelling read, and so perfectly American that it deserves kudos and your time.
The bottom line is I loved it and couldn't put it down for too long. Let it break your heart a little because it certainly will. This is little league with clarity and soul.
Mark Braun
Executive Director
Old Timers' Baseball Association of Chicago
Since 1919
 Decent premise - poor execution August 11, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Let me prefice this review by saying I love the LLWS. I watch it every year. While I am saddened by the comercialization of it, ESPN still puts on a good show.
This is a book I was excited to see, due to the above mentioned love for the LLWS. However, what follows are 256 pages of boredom. Instead of focusing on one years worth of kids, the author thinks it would be a great idea to jump around, in no particular order, through several stories from different years. This creates a disjointed feel and doesn't allow the book to build any momentum.
The author makes it a point to mention ESPN a couple times in akward fashion. It's only when you realize that the author works for ESPN do those mentions make sense. It comes across as fake and unnecessary.
The actual book has a plodding feel to it. Almost like a short magazine article being stretched into a novel. Some of the individual stories are interesting, but others leave me wondering why they were included in this book. Maybe it was to beef up the page count?
In the end, this book holds a very good premise, but the execution of that premise is severely lacking. Even being a hardcore LLWS fan, I found this book a bore so I can't in good faith recommend it to many other people.
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