Playing to Win

By: Michael Lewis

Narrated by: Michael Lewis

Length: 2 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

When New York Times best-selling author and journalist Michael Lewis got involved in his kids’ local softball league, it all seemed so wholesome and simple. Ten years later, his family looked back to find that they had spent thousands of dollars - not to mention hours - and traveled thousands of miles in the service of a single sport.

All over America, families are investing blood, sweat, tears, and retirement savings in their children’s sports careers, all with the ultimate goal of…what exactly? A college scholarship? A professional contract? Simply the taste of victory?

Through the lens of the highly competitive world of girls’ softball, Lewis reveals the youth sports industrial complex that has arisen to aggressively monetize after-school pastimes. The major players aren’t the ones on the field - they’re the ones stripping the pockets of unwitting parents to the tune of billions of dollars a year, creating an arms race of amateur athletics and enabling the Varsity Blues scandal. So what’s in it for the parents - or, for that matter, the kids themselves? This from-the-bleachers portrait of our national obsession with youth sports explores the consequences of high-stakes play for families, communities, and the kids in the game.  

©2019 Michael Lewis (P)2020 Audible Originals, LLC.

Great Listen

Fascinating for everyone with children wondering why am I spending a small fortune and why am I so emotionally invested. I was able to listen to it in one sitting. Very interesting and informative.

Addresses the Inequities of Youth Sports

I've actually watched a couple of families struggle through this. one in the 90s and one in the 2010s. Now I finally understand what they were trying to do. Lewis is so good at explaining this kind of stuff. I ended up a little sad for even parents who had "won".

Informative

Very well written story about the industrial youth sports complex. A great read for parents and coaches of student athletes.

You have a child/athlete?

If you do, you owe it to him/ her to hear this wonderful short book.

Short and sweet

Loved it. Appreciate the narrator. Good synopsis of how crazy we as parents have become

Aspiring College Athlete?

Must read for the parents of an aspiring college athlete, especially females! Certainly worth the time.

Good read

This was an Audible Premium play so it was free. It’s a nice personal story I’d recommend for fans of his previous works, like Money Ball. He has a knack for looking at the psychology, economics, and persons behind movements and how they happen.

This short story is the examination of children’s travel rec leagues from the inside view. It’s short, breezy, parenting friendly. It takes a look at the exploitation of parents’ pockets and the family pressures that go into youth sports, including the big money to be profited off of 14 year olds playing softball or lacrosse. In the final part the author discusses how the sports system has warped American college admissions and not for the better. (The college admissions fraud cases weren’t specifically mentioned, but you can see how someone would buy their kid a fake sports record, with a college coach being more powerful than the admissions board of a college.)

Compared to prior works, this topic is concession stand “small peanuts”, directly focused about the ordinary families all across the country enrolling their kids in youth sports and how they spend their weekends driving to tournaments and living out of hotels. He covers this slice of Americana as masterfully as the bigger corporate stories he‘s told. You feel a part of the zeitgeist, and also receive a cautionary warning it’s not worth the headache, except as much as it brings family happiness.

It’s got some parts of a parent bragging about his kid’s softball days in the way only a parent can love, as you nod as a coworker talks about their kid’s epic dance recital. He knows his participation was nonsensical and yet it’s a part of his personality. He fell involved into the world so much that he describes it with accuracy and understanding of the people who buy into the youth sport pipe dream, but also is able to look at the economics of the nightmare ($15k for volleyball a year for a kid). It was a nice short listen and a reminder to balance parenting, to not be caught up in the pay-to-play industry of families living on the road spending thousands to hold that dream of being the best ball player, with a payout that has little/no career potential.
Overall, it was clear that he was a good dad. Coaching softball, analyzing it to the extent he did, seeking out positive female role models, and believing in his daughter shine through in the book. Was the the thousands of days of softball the best use of time? Probably not, but his kid came out happy and you learn by doing and making mistakes. This was a good read (listen).

Interesting and too short

An interesting book. I wish it had more depth, and thus was longer. It feels more like a very long article in the Sunday paper than a full book. Still quite enjoyable. I was not a huge fan of the ending but I suspect I am in the minority.

great look inside youth travel sports

a must listen if you are involved with youth travel sports. before you say yes, think of why you are doing it

Too short :)

Needs definitelly a longer version. Great thought provoking story by a bestseller author. Cant complain as its “free”.