Billy Fitzgerald is a sports legend you've never heard of. The 57-year-old former minor league catcher coaches baseball and basketball at New Orleans' Isidore Newman School; not exactly a high-profile assignment. Ubiquitously called "Coach Fitz," this veteran mentor personifies a tough-as-nails coaching philosophy seldom seen in these days of player perks and recruiting wars. Not surprisingly, his old-school ways are under fire from parents at the expensive Louisiana prep school, but this gruff mentor does have hundreds of defenders among his former players (most notably NFL quarterback Peyton Manning), who insist that Coach Fitz changed their lives. Bestselling author Michael Lewis once labored under the verbal lashes of this unforgettable man; now he, too, pays tribute to a man who taught him some of life's most important lessons.
“There are teachers with a rare ability to enter a child's mind;
it's as if their ability to get there at all gives them the right to stay forever.”
There was a turning point in Michael Lewis's life, in a baseball game when he was fourteen years old. The irascible and often terrifying Coach Fitz put the ball in his hand with the game on the line and managed to convey such confident trust in Lewis' ability that the boy had no choice but to live up to it. “I didn't have words for it then, but I do now: I am about to show the world, and myself, what I can do.”
The coach's message was not simply about winning, but about self-respect, sacrifice, courage, and endurance. In some ways, and even now, thirty years later, Lewis still finds himself trying to measure up to what Coach Fitz expected of him.
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it's as if their ability to get there at all gives them the right to stay forever.”
There was a turning point in Michael Lewis's life, in a baseball game when he was fourteen years old. The irascible and often terrifying Coach Fitz put the ball in his hand with the game on the line and managed to convey such confident trust in Lewis' ability that the boy had no choice but to live up to it. “I didn't have words for it then, but I do now: I am about to show the world, and myself, what I can do.”
The coach's message was not simply about winning, but about self-respect, sacrifice, courage, and endurance. In some ways, and even now, thirty years later, Lewis still finds himself trying to measure up to what Coach Fitz expected of him.
Coach: Lessons on the Game of Life
“There are teachers with a rare ability to enter a child's mind;
it's as if their ability to get there at all gives them the right to stay forever.”
There was a turning point in Michael Lewis's life, in a baseball game when he was fourteen years old. The irascible and often terrifying Coach Fitz put the ball in his hand with the game on the line and managed to convey such confident trust in Lewis' ability that the boy had no choice but to live up to it. “I didn't have words for it then, but I do now: I am about to show the world, and myself, what I can do.”
The coach's message was not simply about winning, but about self-respect, sacrifice, courage, and endurance. In some ways, and even now, thirty years later, Lewis still finds himself trying to measure up to what Coach Fitz expected of him.
it's as if their ability to get there at all gives them the right to stay forever.”
There was a turning point in Michael Lewis's life, in a baseball game when he was fourteen years old. The irascible and often terrifying Coach Fitz put the ball in his hand with the game on the line and managed to convey such confident trust in Lewis' ability that the boy had no choice but to live up to it. “I didn't have words for it then, but I do now: I am about to show the world, and myself, what I can do.”
The coach's message was not simply about winning, but about self-respect, sacrifice, courage, and endurance. In some ways, and even now, thirty years later, Lewis still finds himself trying to measure up to what Coach Fitz expected of him.
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Product Details
BN ID: | 2940169380729 |
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Publisher: | Penguin Random House |
Publication date: | 05/10/2005 |
Edition description: | Unabridged |
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