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In 1971, a small-town high school baseball team from rural Illinoisplaying with hand-me-down uniforms and peace signs on their hatsdefied convention and the odds. Led by an English teacher with nocoaching experience, the Macon Ironmen emerged from a field of 370teams to become the smallest school in modern Illinois history to make thestate final, a distinction that still stands. There, sporting longhair, and warming up to Jesus Christ Superstar, the Ironmen would playa dramatic game against a Chicago powerhouse that would change theirlives forever.In a gripping, cinematic narrative, Sports Illustrated writer ChrisBallard tells the story of the team and its coach, Lynn Sweet, ahippie, dreamer and intellectual who arrived in Macon in 1966,bringing progressive ideas to a town stuck in the Eisenhower era.Beloved by students but not administration, Sweet reluctantly tookover a rag-tag team, intent on teaching the boys as much about life asbaseball. Inspired by Sweet's unconventional methods and led by fierystar Steve Shartzer and spindly curveball artist John Heneberry, theundersized, undermanned Macon Ironmen embarked on an improbablepostseason run that infuriated rival coaches and buoyed an entiretown.Beginning with Sweet's arrival, Ballard takes readers on a journeyback to the Ironmen's historic season and then on to the present day,returning to the 1971 Ironmen to explore the effect the game had ontheir lives' trajectories--and the men they've become because of it.Engaging and poignant, One Shot at Forever is a testament to the powerof high school sports to shape the lives of those who play them, andit reminds us that there are few bonds more sacred than that among acoach, a team, and a town
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