101 Lessons From the Dugout: A Must-Read for Coaches, Parents, and Young Athletes

Full Disclosure: I have been a big fan of Ken Davidoff for a long, long time. He was a frequent guest on my SportsTalkNY radio show, over the years I’ve always enjoyed spending time with him in the press box where conversations range from pitch sequencing to the identity of the mystery meat that’s been sitting under a heat lamp since Dave Kingman last played for the Mets. So when 101 Lessons From the Dugout, the book he co-authored with nationally renowned pediatrician and parenting expert Dr. Harley Rotbart, came out, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. Add in the fact that I’ve spent more than 20 years coaching youth baseball, and this book spoke to me on so many levels that I half expected it to start calling me “Coach” and asking me to fill out lineup cards.

Baseball may be America’s pastime, but at its best, it’s also one of life’s best teachers. Youth sports, when handled with purpose, aren’t about trophies—they’re about trust, effort, failure, and growth. For more than two decades, I’ve believed that coaches are caretakers of something bigger than wins and losses: we’re helping mold young people into thriving adults. This book isn’t just about baseball and softball. It’s a reminder of the life lessons they offer, and why it should be required reading for every parent, player, and coach involved in youth and travel sports.

This isn’t a memoir, a hot-take manifesto, or another book explaining why the Dodgers should always win the World Series because they spent the GDP of a small nation on their roster. Instead, it’s a thoughtful, surprisingly warm guide to the lessons kids and their parents can learn from baseball and softball. Each chapter takes a baseball concept and translates it into something larger. You’re not in the starting lineup today. Clean up after yourself. You need a bullpen. Make the routine play. Hit the cutoff man.

If you’ve coached youth baseball, you can feel your blood pressure lowering just reading that list.

Davidoff brings the perspective of someone who spent 25 years on the beat, covering Mets and Yankees, All-Star Games and World Series, and watching greatness up close. Rotbart brings the voice of a pediatrician who understands how kids actually think and how parents actually worry. The result is a book that doesn’t lecture; it coaches. It doesn’t shout; it explains. It’s the difference between the dad who screams “RUN!” from the bleachers and the coach who calmly shows you how to round second base without looking like you’re escaping a bear.

One of the things I heard Davidoff say in a recent interview was that stepping off the daily journalism hamster wheel helped him rediscover the joy of the game itself. That rediscovery runs through this book. It’s baseball stripped down to its essential truths: teamwork, resilience, humility, preparation—and yes, picking up your sunflower seed shells. There’s a passage about cleaning up the dugout, inspired by Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s viral moment tidying the bench after a game, that teaches respect in a way no lecture ever could. One of my biggest rules for every team I’ve coached has always been to never leave a space the same way you found it, but to leave it better than you found it. It’s not about the dugout or the field; it’s about respect. Seeing that core lesson echoed so clearly here genuinely brought a smile to my face.

There’s a chapter about not being in the starting lineup that should be required reading for every 12-year-old and more importantly every parent who thinks their child not starting is a violation of the Geneva Convention.

Having coached for two decades, I found myself nodding along like a bobblehead in a moving car. These are the conversations you try to have in the dugout after a tough loss, except this book organizes them, polishes them, and delivers them without you having to invent metaphors while a parent asks why their kid didn’t bat third.

What makes this book work is that it understands something youth sports often forget: the scoreboard matters less than the lessons. Baseball is uniquely positioned to teach patience, failure, delayed gratification, and teamwork in a way few other sports can. You can strike out three times and still help your team with a sacrifice bunt, a smart relay, or just being a good teammate. Try explaining that to a seven-year-old, who sometimes get it more than the parent.

101 Lessons From the Dugout isn’t just for kids. It’s for coaches who care, parents who hover, and adults who remember when baseball meant stickball, hand-me-down gloves, and a parent with a clicker counting outs in the backyard. It’s for anyone who believes sports should build character, not just game changer and instagram highlights.

This isn’t a book you read once and shelve. It belongs in every coach’s ball bag or glove compartment, ready for those moments before practice or on the ride to a game. Every parent should have it on hand too—rather than getting caught up in pre-game routines or chatting on the sidelines, they can use this time to reflect on and reinforce the principles that make youth sports meaningful: respect, resilience, teamwork, and the life lessons that last far beyond the final out.

And yes, I’m biased. Ken Davidoff is a friend, a terrific writer, and someone who has spent decades around the game. But bias aside, this is a book that belongs in every coach’s library, every sports parent’s nightstand, and every young player’s backpack.

Just don’t let them read it during batting practice. We already have enough kids trying to understand the infield fly rule.