The writers are a mix of very familiar names, such as George Plimpton, John Irving, Pat Conroy, and Bill Bradley (who writes the excellent forward), other names you may have heard of but never read, and stll others you may have never heard of. The essays vary widely, from Pat Conroy's talking mostly of his own drive to compete, with the coach appearing only as punctuation, to George Vescey's wonderful reminiscence/thumbnail sketch of life around the inimitable Casey Stengel (who Vescey followed as a writer and friend, rather than as a player Casey coached.) David Maraniss learned from "The Coach Who Wasn't There" about the idea of freedom through discipline: "That is, the only way to truly be free is to discipline yourself to master the world around you." The title’s Coach Who Wasn't There refers both to the generally coach-free playing days of Maraniss’s childhood, and also to Vince Lombardi, from whom he learned while working on Lombardi’s biography, years after the coach’s death. The connection between freedom and discipline is well worth revisiting. It's a central part of the social contract philosophy that both the American Declaration of Independence and Constitution are based on.

This is a fascinating read, in no small part because of the range of lessons the writers learned and the various ways they learned them. Readers can empathize with many of them and even learn from themselves - "coached" by the book Coach, if you will. Recommended.