Put Him In, Coach!
A Mother's All-Star Memoir
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Not altogether by coincidence, I turned up pregnant a couple of years after my oldest son completed play in his first Little League tournament. Already a mother of three, I was thirty-eight, old to be expecting again, at least in broad, universal terms, though only slightly past my prime in this day of fifty-year-old celebrities conceiving miracle babies. My friends, long finished with two a.m. feedings and diapers, felt both relief and a twinge of regret over this happy news. Though the idea of another infant exhausted them, most of them teared up to think of that baby powder smell or the touch of a downy cheek. They marveled at the bravery and generosity of spirit my husband and I demonstrated in choosing to bring yet another life into the world. They comforted themselves by blaming our slightly outrageous behavior on my Roman Catholic upbringing--"Oh, you're from such a large family," they exclaimed. "Naturally you'd want lots of children of your own!" This was true, I agreed, trying to feel brave and generous, smiling through the hormonal hangover that plagued me, wondering, secretly, why anyone would volunteer to endure three months of feeling nauseated at the smell of coffee brewing or the mere sight of raw poultry. And why was it again that I thought I needed to re-engage in such domestic challenges as chopping Vienna sausages into bite-sized pieces or wiping mashed banana off of countertops? Years before, my husband and I had seemingly achieved parenting nirvana--two nascent bundles of male virility for him, a sweet little princess for me--and soon they would all three be enrolled in a full school day. What was I thinking? In retrospect, a protracted series of hormonal moments may have been responsible, yet there I was, the specter of forty hovering at my doorstep, and pregnant, committed once again to the joys of breast pumps and infant drool and soon to embark on hundreds of additional nights of half-sleep. Worst of all, I would before long become one of those preschool moms that everyone mistakes for Junior's grandmother. Why did I do it? I couldn't get enough of Little League baseball.
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About the Book
Four-year-old Sam Payne can knock the baseball out of the park. That "the park" is only the back yard of his suburban home makes little difference to his mother, Martha Payne, who understands baseball a lot better than she understands parenting. She yearns to make her son a star on the Little League field, where promising young players are rewarded with a spot on the All-Star team.
Fueled by endless ambition but only a pinch of maternal instinct, Payne helps her son navigate through the thrilling but often heartless world of Little League baseball. While revealing a host of parental neuroses and coaching excesses, Put Him In, Coach! delves into the inscrutable bond between mother and son-a bond sometimes forged in unlikely places.
As Sam progresses from tee-ball through years of strikeouts and wild pitches and up to the brink of adolescence, he and his mother discover as much about each other as they do about the perils of the game. Most importantly, Payne learns that in raising a son, sometimes less is more-even if your kid does have a shot at becoming the next Babe Ruth.
Put Him In, Coach! A Mother's All-Star Memoir, is a recipient of the prestigious Mom's Choice Award. The Mom's Choice Awards honor excellence in family-friendly media, products and services. The Awards esteemed panel of judges includes education and media experts as well as parents, children, librarians, performing artists, producers, medical and business professionals, authors, and scientists, including Dr. Twila C. Liggett, ten-time Emmy-winner and founder of Reading Rainbow; Julie Aigner-Clark, creator of Baby Einstein and the Safe Side Project; Jodee Blanco, New York Times best-selling author; LeAnn Thieman, motivational speaker and coauthor of seven Chicken Soup For The Soul books, and Tara Paterson, Certified Parent Coach and founder of the Mom's Choice Awards. Parents and educators look for the Mom's Choice Awards seal in selecting quality materials and products for children and families. Martha Payne's memoir has been honored with this distinguished award.
About the Author
A mother of four athletes and an avid baseball fan, Martha Payne is a former columnist for Chop Talk, the Atlanta Braves? magazine. She has served on her local Little League board for nine years and is also a fiction writer. She is currently revising her first novel, THE BISCUIT TIN, a Southern family saga in which a forgotten family heirloom holds clues to a young woman's true identity. Payne lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her family.