<p>When he wasn't writing a five-day-a-week column for the Evansville, Indiana, Courier &amp; Press, Garret Mathews coached baseball players who weren't much taller than the equipment bag. In Swing Batta!, he chronicles his ten-year-old son Evan's season, beginning with tryouts and the player draft and ending with the post-season tournament.<br>     Mathews writes of seven-kid sleepovers, players who wear shower thongs to practice, and kids who go to McDonald's and say, "Give me four dollars' worth, please." Mathews's line-up features a player with cystic fibrosis who keeps an inhaler in his bat bag. One who went to a major-league game and hollered at the third-base umpire to give him a ball. One who pretends he's an ESPN highlight film. One who almost died in an automobile accident. And baby sisters getting loose on the outfield. And Evan wearing his catcher's equipment downtown after a game because he wanted everyone to know how he spent his morning. Writing their names in the dugout dirt. Asking for do-overs. Trying to get the warped popcorn popper ready for opening day. Mathews is strictly Minor League. And he couldn't be happier.</p>

Swing, Batta!

Sports & Outdoors

Garret Mathews

Garrett Matthews

Biographies

Michigan State University Press

Hey, Bata, Batta: It Happened One Summer (It Happened One Summer)

Author Garret Matthews spent the entire season with the Evansville Otters of the Frontier League. His book is full of humor and pathos as he chronicles the dreams and hopes and frustrations of the players and coaches who are at the end of their major league dreams. Garret’s observations take the reader from the dugout to the bullpen and off the field, too, for a remarkable chronicle of life in the minors. It’s Bull Durham come to life, with real players and real situations.

Can't Find a Dry Ball: The Evansville Otters on the Lowest Rung of Baseball

Baseball

Albion Pr

Sandra goes to elementary school in one of the poorest parts of the city. Only one child in her fifth-grade class does not qualify for the free-lunch program. It's the rare youngster who resides with both biological parents. Not many of their caregivers graduated high school. Several have problems with drugs and alcohol. That became the impetus for a book on Sandra's fifth-grade year, both at home and at school. I wanted readers to discover, as I did, what it's like to grow up poor with all the odds stacked against her. To make matters worse, Sandra is extremely shy and anxiety-ridden. Her mother has convinced her that the world is a dangerous place. The child won't go to the zoo because she believes the stories she's been told about how the animals could get loose and kill everybody they see. I have not seen Sandra since the end of her fifth-grade year. As I write this, she should be entering her freshman year of high school. She deserves the best. I wish her plenty of good days ahead.

Sandra's Story: It's Not Gonna Be A Very Good Day

lulu.com

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Books by Garret Mathews