Making It Home: The Book of the Season
Grief meets its match in the bleachers
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“Oh boy… that might go… it’s going… wow!”
The grandfather’s home run call could very well serve as the epilogue for a forthcoming book in which he is a central figure.
Not too long ago, I received a text message with an accompanying video that captured a triumphant swing from the Little League fields in Scottsdale, Arizona. My friend’s 13-year-old had gone yard. The camera angle was ideal. From just behind the backstop, near the on-deck circle on the third-base side, the footage reveals a left-handed hitter’s confident cut.
The catcher had set up outside. The pitcher, who — as far as I know — could have struck out 10 consecutive batters leading up to this at-bat, misses his target. The pitch is up around the letters and right down the middle.
The batter knows it’s gone immediately. His grandfather, who upon contact assumed both the play-by-play and color commentary responsibilities, puts his understated stamp on the moment. The slugger’s mother is behind the camera, recording the round-tripper.
One pitch, one swing, three generations.
In Making It Home: Life Lessons from a Season of Little League, a memoir by Teresa Strasser that will be widely available on June 6, those three generations unearth and explore grief, loss, and love through baseball.
Strasser effortlessly weaves the narrative from her childhood — constantly shuttling by plane or bus as an unaccompanied minor between Los Angeles and San Francisco in the ’70s as a result of her parents’ divorce and bizarre custody arrangement — to her brother’s battle with spinal cancer to Arcadia Little League, where her older son’s season provides the sanctuary for her father and her to grieve.
Before going any further, I should disclose that Strasser, an Emmy-winning comedy writer, is a friend of mine and a faithful reader of WTP. I was fortunate enough to read a good portion of Making It Home in installments as a rough draft. I am excited you all will soon have the chance to read the final version cover to cover.
Strasser exposes so much of herself with such grace in the storyline from her childhood, including the horrific admonishments and mental torture delivered by her evil stepmother and the lack of support and awareness from her own father, that her vulnerabilities serve to disarm. She manages to tell a story of an attempted abduction (made possible by a lack of parental presence) with a signature blend of charm, humor and morbidity.
The straightforward and dignified manner in which she confronts her brother’s cancer diagnosis and, ultimately, death also shows an unapologetic playful energy that a little sister might have for her older and only sibling.
Morgan Strasser was a Dodgers fan who moved to the Bay Area as a result of his parents’ breakup. While both Strasser children became children of divorce, only Morgan’s shattered home life was punctuated with a move to Giants territory.
His favorite players were Fernando Valenzuela, Ron Cey, and Steve Garvey. You wouldn’t find posters of those guys in many childhood bedrooms in Northern California.
The author appears in the book as a mother, daughter, and wife (her husband coaches their son’s team), but at its core, this is a story of a sister. While attempting to mourn her brother, she sometimes gets stuck mourning the childhood they never had together, a childhood absent of sibling moments.
There is comfort, however, when Strasser watches her older son, Nate, on the baseball field. As a child, she attended her brother’s games; now she sees his actions, his grace, and his demeanor in her own son. There is comfort in knowing that son and brother are forever united as two lefties with a shared birthday and confident stride on the field.
While grief is a theme in the book, Making It Home is not a book about grief; quite simply, there is too much dysfunction at play to provide a safe space for anyone to grieve. Strasser escorts the reader on the red carpet to the underbelly of her upbringing and leads them out, unscathed, to the folding lawn chairs where she and her father cheer out their sorrow.
Together, they critique a lineup of nine-year-olds, ruthlessly identifying individual weaknesses before they are exposed on the diamond for all to see. It’s the kind of analysis generally reserved for gamblers and professionals.
They cheer like mad throughout the season — the first Little League season for the family since Morgan passed — because, in the suspense and drama of games, they find their space to grieve. There is an outlet.
In baseball — from tee ball to the Major Leagues — everything between the lines makes sense. Sure, there are plenty of bad bounces, borderline calls that go the wrong way, and line drives hit right at somebody. But chalk lines provide clear boundaries. The batting order creates structure. There’s only one way to circle the bases.
That is to say, a father doesn’t outlive his son, and a sister doesn’t lose a childhood with her brother because of a custody arrangement that plays out like a parody of King Solomon’s ruling.
When order is torn asunder, the inherent optimism in baseball provides firm footing. Baseball resets.
The game can break your heart and heal it simultaneously.
In giving herself to the season, Strasser gains an appreciation for what the game can give — and take away. While she and her father make peace with the past, they are able to mourn in the present. Grief finds love, life, and humor from the bleachers in a wonderful ballad to a brother’s legacy.
You can pre-order Making It Home by clicking here.
Additionally, for those in the Phoenix area, click here for more information about an event with Strasser at a Changing Hands Bookstore this coming Tuesday, the day of the book’s release.
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