One Shot at Forever

One Shot at Forever: A Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season (2012), a biography by Chris Ballard, looks at the career of baseball coach Lynn Sweet and the impact he and his progressive values had on teams through the decades. The book was well received and is popular with baseball fans. It won the ALA Alex Award in 2013, and it was nominated for a 2016 Lincoln Award. Ballard is a writer for Sports Illustrated and a lifelong fan of baseball.

In 1966, Sweet is an English teacher with no experience coaching sports of any kind. He takes on the baseball team, the Macon Ironmen, in Illinois. In 1971, the school is the smallest in Illinois history to make a state final—a record still standing today. They’re fondly remembered for their unconventional training, passion, and talent. Ballard looks at the Ironmen’s history from the moment Sweet arrives at the school to the present day and how the town feels about him.

Sweet doesn’t plan to become a sports coach. He’s the type who doesn’t plan for anything, instead, letting life unfold before him. Always open to new opportunities, he’s willing to attend an interview for an English teaching job in Macon. Sweet typically defies convention, preferring to live a simple, unrestricted life. He certainly doesn’t have the discipline expected from a sports coach. However, this will later make him the perfect candidate for building a unique baseball team.



Sweet loves reading and everything about the written word, but he only becomes an English teacher because his other option is to join the military like his father. Although Sweet is a pacifist, he also knows he’d be miserable living an Army lifestyle. He’s an ideal teacher as far as Macon principal, Roger Britton, is concerned—Britton loves unconventional teachers because he believes this exposes his students to numerous influences, allowing them to shape their own identities authentically. Sweet accepts the job because he believes in this idea.

However, Sweet doesn’t know what to make of Macon, which has yet to adopt any progressive or liberal values. It’s stuck in a rut of sorts, partly because of its location and partly because of its residents. He’s not convinced he’ll thrive in this environment. He needs a means to make it his own; the school is about the only place in Macon open-minded enough to do so.

Ballard also introduces us to individual members of the baseball team, which will become important to Sweet. These players include Steve Shartzer, a bored troublemaker who lacks direction and creative outlets, and who later becomes a star hitter on the baseball team. Steve is later drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals, which speaks both to his abilities and how Sweet encourages all his students to have dreams and work towards them.



Sweet’s unconventional attitude is best illustrated by looking at Steve’s. Most teachers, parents, and residents of the town are appalled by Steve’s behavior and how he lobs apples at police cars from far away. Instead of disciplining Steve, Sweet, recognizing that Steve has an incredible pitching arm, wants him to be on his team. While decisions like this make Sweet unpopular with the school administration, he’s cherished by students for how he gives everyone a chance, pushing them all to make the most of their talents.

Sweet defies the administration at every turn. He changes the classroom layout, has the boys singing “Yellow Submarine” on the team bus and growing their hair, and warming up to “Jesus Christ Superstar.” In 1970, Sweet’s first year coaching, he accepts every boy who turns up for trials onto the team, letting them decide where they want to play on the field. The boys have played together for years as neighbors, and so they’re a well-oiled machine. Sweet knows they can go far with the right encouragement—and he’s the first teacher who believes in them enough to make them feel the same. He’s fired in 1971, then, rehired when parents and players alike protest the decision.

In later life, Sweet lives a quiet existence running a local wildlife refuge on his own land. However, his legacy lives on among students, teachers, and players at Macon, who will never forget the magical season the 1971 team had. Even players like Steve and Brian Snitker, a third-base coach for the Atlanta Braves, can never forget Sweet and the difference he made in their lives.



Sweet doesn’t just teach baseball—he teaches the students how to cope under pressure, handle adversity, and think fast. For example, when most of their bats break during a playoff game, Sweet coordinates the emergency purchasing of bats from a local store, pretending to the other team that there’s nothing wrong. This carefree attitude sticks with his players and the school forever.