The Last Best League
One Summer, One Season, One Dream
Da Capo,
Originally published in 2004, The Last Best League chronicles one season in the life of the Chatham A’s of the Cape Cod Baseball League, which draws the best college players in the country every summer. Over the past decade, however, baseball’s hard truths became evident for Chatham’s college stars, who’d had dreams of one day playing in the majors. The final chapter—how those dreams played out—can now be written.
In a new afterword written for the tenth anniversary edition, Jim Collins explores an area that sports literature rarely touches: What does it mean to devote your life to an almost impossible goal and not make it? Or, make it only briefly before it slips away? What does a dream look like in retrospect? How does the game look different?
“In the tradition of The Boys of Summer, The Last Best League is about dreams fulfilled and dreams denied; it’s about Cape Cod and the rites of summer; and about the way one small town grows to love a group of young men coming of age in America.”
-Fuel Baseball magazine