This book was not what I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be a autobiography of Mike Matheny, the present manager of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team. Being a baseball fan (although a Milwaukee Brewer fan), I thought it would be interesting to hear his story. I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was much more than his story, it his views on how to succeed in sports and in life.
The manifesto is a letter he wrote to all the parents of the little league team he was preparing to coach. He set down some pretty strict guidelines that not all the parents could abide by. Some families left the team, but in the end his team and later other teams in his organization succeeded because of the principles and values he set forth. He addresses the problems of parents being overinvolved in their child's sport's team and their unrealistic expectations of winning. He identifies and expands upon eight keys to success: leadership, confidence, teamwork, faith, class, character, toughness and humility. He uses examples from his own life in describing these character traits. Throughout the book, his Christian faith is the driving force behind his playing baseball and later coaching and managing the Cardinals.
This is a great book for any parent who is looking to coach youth sports, any parent who has a child involved in sports and in general for anyone who loves the game of baseball. I enjoyed the book and the fact that good
sportsmanship is emphasized more than winning. In this day of adults lying or trying to get around the rules in youth sports, this book is a reminder that there are more important things than winning and that the character of our young people playing sports is what counts.
I received this book from "Blogging for Books" for this review.
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