In Chris Ballard’s non-fictional One Shot at Forever the underdogs, Macon “the Ironmen” baseball team, play a life-changing game in the 1971 Illinois State Championship game. This novel is mainly about a team with no hope of winning overcoming the odds and making it to the championship game. This novel is a true story. Most of the players on the actual Macon team have been drafted to the majors. One Shot at Forever displays a team who overcomes adversary, being grateful, and the power of friendship. To start, the main theme in One Shot at Forever is overcoming adversary. "In, 1971, a small-town high school baseball team from rural Illinois, playing with peace signs on their hats, defied convention of the odds.” The school can barely even afford to have a baseball team. They are a perfect example of an underdog team. The team they play against in the finals, a Chicago powerhouse, is the complete opposite of them. The high school they play against is very large because in 1971 schools were not put in different divisions by size. For the Chicago powerhouse, making it to the championship game was expected, for the Macon baseball team it was nearly impossible. They also do not have an experienced coach. “Led by an English teacher with no coaching experience…” Their …show more content…
They do not complain about having a coach that is not qualified. The team is given hand me down uniforms but still play. Most players would not play on a team where they are not given clean, new equipment. “One game,” win or lose, can change a life.” In this quote we can see they are grateful for any chance they get just to play baseball. Another quote is “Have your fun but always, always stand tall the next morning." Coach Lynn says this. He is very laid back and the players like him even though you’d expect them to be rude and snooby to an English teacher forced to coach baseball. Overall, this proves another point in the