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Making It Home: Life Lessons from a Season of Little League
An achingly heartfelt and surprisingly funny memoir about family, grief, and moving forward by an award-winning writer and TV personality.
When her brother dies from cancer, and then her mother just four months later, Teresa Strasser has no one to mourn with but her irresponsible, cantankerous, trailerpark-dwelling father. He claims not to remember her chaotic childhood, but he's a devoted grandpa, so as her son embarks on his first season pitching in Little League, Teresa and Nelson form a grief group of two in beach chairs lined up behind the first base line.
There are no therapeutically trained facilitators and no rules other than those dictated by the Little League of America, and the human heart. For Teresa and her father, the stages of grief are the draft, the regular season, and the playoffs. One season of baseball becomes the framework for a memoir about family, loss, and the fundamentals of baseball and life. They cheer, talk smack about other teams, scream at each other in the parking lot, and care way too much about Little League.
Making It Home is a bracingly honest journey through grief, self-doubt, and anxiety armed with humor and optimism. After all, America's pastime may be just a game, but it always leaves room for redemption, even at the bottom of the lineup.
When her brother dies from cancer, and then her mother just four months later, Teresa Strasser has no one to mourn with but her irresponsible, cantankerous, trailerpark-dwelling father. He claims not to remember her chaotic childhood, but he's a devoted grandpa, so as her son embarks on his first season pitching in Little League, Teresa and Nelson form a grief group of two in beach chairs lined up behind the first base line.
There are no therapeutically trained facilitators and no rules other than those dictated by the Little League of America, and the human heart. For Teresa and her father, the stages of grief are the draft, the regular season, and the playoffs. One season of baseball becomes the framework for a memoir about family, loss, and the fundamentals of baseball and life. They cheer, talk smack about other teams, scream at each other in the parking lot, and care way too much about Little League.
Making It Home is a bracingly honest journey through grief, self-doubt, and anxiety armed with humor and optimism. After all, America's pastime may be just a game, but it always leaves room for redemption, even at the bottom of the lineup.
352 pages, Paperback
Published June 6, 2023
50 people are currently reading
3276 people want to read
About the author
Teresa Strasser
5 books34 followersTeresa Strasser is an Emmy-winning writer (Comedy Central) and Emmy-nominated television host (TLC). She has been a contributor to the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The Arizona Republic, The Jewish Journal, HuffPost, and The Today Show. Her first-person essays have garnered three Los Angeles Press Club Awards, including Columnist of the Year. She’s appeared on The View, CNN, Good Morning America, The Talk, and Dr. Phil. Radio and podcast audiences know her as Adam Carolla’s co-host. Her first memoir, Exploiting My Baby: Because It’s Exploiting Me was a Los Angeles Times bestseller and optioned by ABC.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
May 19, 2024
When I am really excited about a piece of media, I am usually a savorer, not a binger. My sister and friends would read new Harry Potter books the night they were released; I would drag out reading them as long as possible to keep savoring time with those characters – and prevent things from ending. (Therapy insight!)
So, it’s no surprise I took a long time to read @teresastrasser’s memoir about her season of intense grief over losing her brother and her mother within months of each other, which happened to coincide with her elder son’s season of Arcadia Little League. I also knew the content – loss of a sibling – would be triggering for me. My sisters are my best friends, my babies, the great loves of my life, and merely imagining losing any of them is enough to emotionally paralyze me for hours. I weeped throughout this, imagining myself in her position and feeling such deep empathy for her.
But, as she said in our interview about the book last year, it’s “not too grief-y.” She is a hilarious and truly gifted writer, and I laughed as much as I cried. Her lines about her dad alone delighted me so. There’s one scene where they’re in Costco trying to figure out which “finger foods” they should bring to impress at a party, and she says her dad “wouldn’t know crudités from a Camry.”
I loved how honest and raw she was throughout this book, both in the messy process of mourning and in the levity (sometimes dark) she finds within it. Just masterful. I especially appreciated her spiritual and philosophical grappling with loss, helplessness, happiness, and the insanity of existence. She is so much wiser and deeper than she gives herself credit for with her self-deprecating humor. This is much more than a “grief book” or a “baseball book.”
I could seriously write a multi-page essay on this memoir, but instead I shall urge you to read it for yourself! She did the audiobook narration and it is an award-worthy performance. (And I listen to a LOT of audiobooks, and a lot of the narrators are terrible.) I will eventually read it again on the page, but I am so glad I got to hear her tell her story first. 💛
So, it’s no surprise I took a long time to read @teresastrasser’s memoir about her season of intense grief over losing her brother and her mother within months of each other, which happened to coincide with her elder son’s season of Arcadia Little League. I also knew the content – loss of a sibling – would be triggering for me. My sisters are my best friends, my babies, the great loves of my life, and merely imagining losing any of them is enough to emotionally paralyze me for hours. I weeped throughout this, imagining myself in her position and feeling such deep empathy for her.
But, as she said in our interview about the book last year, it’s “not too grief-y.” She is a hilarious and truly gifted writer, and I laughed as much as I cried. Her lines about her dad alone delighted me so. There’s one scene where they’re in Costco trying to figure out which “finger foods” they should bring to impress at a party, and she says her dad “wouldn’t know crudités from a Camry.”
I loved how honest and raw she was throughout this book, both in the messy process of mourning and in the levity (sometimes dark) she finds within it. Just masterful. I especially appreciated her spiritual and philosophical grappling with loss, helplessness, happiness, and the insanity of existence. She is so much wiser and deeper than she gives herself credit for with her self-deprecating humor. This is much more than a “grief book” or a “baseball book.”
I could seriously write a multi-page essay on this memoir, but instead I shall urge you to read it for yourself! She did the audiobook narration and it is an award-worthy performance. (And I listen to a LOT of audiobooks, and a lot of the narrators are terrible.) I will eventually read it again on the page, but I am so glad I got to hear her tell her story first. 💛
August 31, 2023
A fantastic, emotional, and witty read that made me examine my own feelings about relationships and healing. Loved it.
November 4, 2023
A book to be read slowly digesting every heartfelt emotion. Grief is a process. A process that doesn’t go away quickly and has to be lived through. Definitely a worthwhile read.
December 12, 2025
Making it Home is a compelling memoir by Teresa Strasser, a comedic journalist and author with a long list of accomplishments on IMDB for acting, directing, and producing. Folks in Arizona know her as a co-host of CW7’s Arizona Daily Mix. And then there is the fact that she is an Emmy-winning writer for her work on Comedy Central’s Win Ben Stein’s Money.
Though her professional successes are many, they are only peripherally mentioned in the memoir. Instead, we learn about the dysfunctional family into which she was born.
Here are the basic and painful facts. When Teresa was three and her brother, Morgan, was five, their parents divorced. The father was awarded full custody of the children. He lived in Santa Monica, while the mom lived in San Francisco.
There is a wicked stepmother in the story who convinced the dad – after six months of having the kids move in – to break up the kids and return Teresa to her mom. Thus, Teresa and Morgan grew up in separate cities. They saw each other every month or two, and for a week in the summer, and sometimes on holidays. That is until nine years passed and teenaged Morgan got sent home to his mother too.
It should be noted that motherhood did not come naturally to the mom, but at least she wanted her kids. I say this even though the mom’s story is not fully developed in this memoir.
At any rate, more grief was to come to this family when Morgan, at the age of forty, was diagnosed with spinal cancer. He died seven years later. Exactly four months to the day after his death, the mom died too.
As the memoir starts, both deaths have occurred. Teresa is a married adult with two sons, and her dad has just moved to Phoenix to be near them. The older son, Nate, is in third grade and plays Little League baseball. The dad and Teresa go to all the games together, and in that setting, sitting side-by-side, she processes her childhood rage and her grief.
What book clubs will love to discuss about this book is whether Teresa can – or should – forgive her father. Clearly, this is a “when bad things happen to good people” type of story when we think of Teresa and Morgan. But is it also a “when good people do bad things” story when we think of the dad? Or is his bad parenting more evil than that?
As a daughter, I rail against the concept of a dad giving his daughter away! Wouldn’t he see what an emotional scar that would leave?
As a parent, I have more understanding. I recognize that all of my parenting actions have not been stellar and pray for forgiveness. Thus, on behalf of imperfect parents everywhere, I thank Teresa Strasser for even trying with her dad, especially after such a trying start.
Beyond reading this book as a daughter and as a parent, I also read this book as a baseball fan. Trust me, there are a lot of wonderful Little League games to “see” here plus Nate’s team makes it into a postseason tournament.
The author explains that it is a “single elimination” tournament. If you lose one game, you have to hang up your jersey and wait until the next spring to play again. For teams in the tournament you either experience “sudden death,” or you “survive and advance.”
The good news in the book is that Nate’s team manages to survive and advance…
…and so do Teresa Strasser and her father.
Though her professional successes are many, they are only peripherally mentioned in the memoir. Instead, we learn about the dysfunctional family into which she was born.
Here are the basic and painful facts. When Teresa was three and her brother, Morgan, was five, their parents divorced. The father was awarded full custody of the children. He lived in Santa Monica, while the mom lived in San Francisco.
There is a wicked stepmother in the story who convinced the dad – after six months of having the kids move in – to break up the kids and return Teresa to her mom. Thus, Teresa and Morgan grew up in separate cities. They saw each other every month or two, and for a week in the summer, and sometimes on holidays. That is until nine years passed and teenaged Morgan got sent home to his mother too.
It should be noted that motherhood did not come naturally to the mom, but at least she wanted her kids. I say this even though the mom’s story is not fully developed in this memoir.
At any rate, more grief was to come to this family when Morgan, at the age of forty, was diagnosed with spinal cancer. He died seven years later. Exactly four months to the day after his death, the mom died too.
As the memoir starts, both deaths have occurred. Teresa is a married adult with two sons, and her dad has just moved to Phoenix to be near them. The older son, Nate, is in third grade and plays Little League baseball. The dad and Teresa go to all the games together, and in that setting, sitting side-by-side, she processes her childhood rage and her grief.
What book clubs will love to discuss about this book is whether Teresa can – or should – forgive her father. Clearly, this is a “when bad things happen to good people” type of story when we think of Teresa and Morgan. But is it also a “when good people do bad things” story when we think of the dad? Or is his bad parenting more evil than that?
As a daughter, I rail against the concept of a dad giving his daughter away! Wouldn’t he see what an emotional scar that would leave?
As a parent, I have more understanding. I recognize that all of my parenting actions have not been stellar and pray for forgiveness. Thus, on behalf of imperfect parents everywhere, I thank Teresa Strasser for even trying with her dad, especially after such a trying start.
Beyond reading this book as a daughter and as a parent, I also read this book as a baseball fan. Trust me, there are a lot of wonderful Little League games to “see” here plus Nate’s team makes it into a postseason tournament.
The author explains that it is a “single elimination” tournament. If you lose one game, you have to hang up your jersey and wait until the next spring to play again. For teams in the tournament you either experience “sudden death,” or you “survive and advance.”
The good news in the book is that Nate’s team manages to survive and advance…
…and so do Teresa Strasser and her father.
July 29, 2023
This beautiful and heartfelt memoir tells the story of grief and love all set at the little league field. Teresa’s brother died of cancer and four months later her mom died of cancer. She finds that her dad doesn’t remember much of her childhood but she is happy that he is a devoted grandfather. On foldable chairs set up at the little league field watching her son all summer they bond and grieve together. This was a beautiful book.
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Huge thank you to @berkleypub @berittalksbooks @thephdivabooks @dg_reads and @netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
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Huge thank you to @berkleypub @berittalksbooks @thephdivabooks @dg_reads and @netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
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March 6, 2024
This book weaved together a lot of baseball (maybe not for everyone but I enjoyed) with grief and family dynamics. Made me think a lot about my relationships with my parents as well as how I feel watching my kids participate in sports (so relatable!).
March 2, 2024
It's a cliché that baseball is a metaphor for life; and yet there is little about this book that is cliche. Teresa Strasser tells the story of her son's championship little league season and how watching the season with her father helped them both to grieve their lost loves one and deepen their own relationship. Strasser's brother and mother died within four months of each other; and so both she and her father have a lot to process. But Strasser's relationships to her brother, her mother, and her father are, shall we say, a bit complicated; and that all comes out as Strasser tells the story of her son's little league season. Each chapter is a mix of baseball and flashbacks that tell you more about these relationships and the unique Strasser family situation. This is also usually tied together with a relevant metaphor or two from baseball. There are laughs and tears throughout. Strasser reads the audio and you can hear the emotion in her voice. The memoir doesn't hold back, there is a real honesty in Strasser's narrative as she struggles with her grief, her guilt, and her anger. And before you think this is just depressing, there is a lot of joy and happiness here as well.
January 27, 2024
I wanted to love this book much more than I did. It is a memoir about a mom watching her son play Little League baseball while sitting in the stands next to her dad, and that has been my exact life for the past few years. The book goes back and forth between her past memories of childhood, more recent memories of dealing with her brother’s and mother’s deaths, and then the present Little League season. She shares a lot about her grief process, and how she is moving forward after tragic loss.
This book was a reminder of how the secular world at large views death, grieving, and the afterlife (or lack thereof). She kept trying to find comfort through therapy or Buddhist practices, mindfulness, meditation, and ultimately baseball, and it all just came up short and felt depressing.
The parts I did enjoy and could really relate to were when she spoke about the emotions we parents feel as our kid goes up to bat or is pitching (PMS = pitcher’s mom syndrome), and the sweet relationship between her 2 sons as ball-playing brothers.
This book was a reminder of how the secular world at large views death, grieving, and the afterlife (or lack thereof). She kept trying to find comfort through therapy or Buddhist practices, mindfulness, meditation, and ultimately baseball, and it all just came up short and felt depressing.
The parts I did enjoy and could really relate to were when she spoke about the emotions we parents feel as our kid goes up to bat or is pitching (PMS = pitcher’s mom syndrome), and the sweet relationship between her 2 sons as ball-playing brothers.
July 17, 2023
The best storytellers are the people that describe a situation so well, that you feel yourself in the story. I remember listening to Teresa Strasser on the radio and really loving her stories. So I was excited about this book. I didn’t expect to have so many things in common with her grief experiences and childhood traumas. I recently lost my brother (who I loved dearly, but didn’t get to grow up with) and I had a difficult step mother (mine wouldn’t let us in the house, so we would come sit on the front porch and exchange Xmas gifts with our dad). The best thing about Teresa and this book, is the humor. She is so funny…and the great relationship she has with her dad now…makes me miss the fun banter I used to have with my own dad….and brother, for that matter. This book is just wonderful on many levels. Read it! It’s going to make a great movie…mark my words.
May 13, 2025
I tend to only write reviews when I really like a book (I suppose I like to promote positivity!) Making It Home by Teresa Strasser is great. She writes with an honest and unapologetic voice that carries consistently throughout the book—something that is not easy to do at all, and most books fail to accomplish. I tend to toggle back and forth between the hard copy and audible version when I'm reading a book, because there isn't enough time in the day to sit down and really read for dedicated clips at a time. This practice usually leaves something to be desired, where the voice reading the book doesn't quite line up with the author's, or the author's voice detracts from their written work. But that's not the case with this one. Teresa's audible version highlights her humor just as well as the text, and I found switching back and forth to be seamless.
July 20, 2023
I didn't think I would love this book as much as I did.
It was both heartbreaking and funny, and so real. Teresa Strasser holds nothing back here and I felt her pain and frustration with her relationships with her parents, and the relationship she had with her brother before his death. It tells of how a season of little league baseball helped her work through her issues. Everything was not resolved and tied up with a bow at the end of the season...as it seldom is in life...but you can tell she's moving forward and it makes you think.
I recommend this book and thank Goodreads for the free copy.
It was both heartbreaking and funny, and so real. Teresa Strasser holds nothing back here and I felt her pain and frustration with her relationships with her parents, and the relationship she had with her brother before his death. It tells of how a season of little league baseball helped her work through her issues. Everything was not resolved and tied up with a bow at the end of the season...as it seldom is in life...but you can tell she's moving forward and it makes you think.
I recommend this book and thank Goodreads for the free copy.
June 25, 2023
As the incomparable Vin Scully once said, “That is the way this game is — you win, you lose, you celebrate, and you suffer.” You don’t have to be a baseball fan to appreciate Teresa Strasser’s heartfelt, witty, and restorative memoir which uses baseball as the framework for moving through cumulative/compounded grief. I especially related to the element of having to process multiple profound losses while simultaneously facing the past, also having grown up in a nontraditional family myself. Much admiration to Strasser for finding her own way and leading others, including her father, to redemption and restoration.
July 10, 2024
As a little league dad, coach, and board member, I knew this needed to be read. The author (even though I did not appreciate some of her language), speaks as an experienced little league mom who found that “this season” spoke so much into her own story and personal loss. Her vulnerability, honesty, and transparency altogether makes this memoir so approachable and receivable. Hearing this book in her voice is icing on the cake. Baseball and life have a lot to speak into each other, like the best integration. Little league, even with all its craziness, can also be the best therapy.
August 28, 2024
I read this book for a book club and was worried it would be triggering as my father was in hospice care when I started the book and he passed away when I was about half way through. I found I was still able to laugh at the funny parts and cry at the appropriate sad parts. The book is well written and poignant. I did have to re-read some of the more intricate baseball passages as I went along being not well versed in the sport. They were not overly complex. It may have just been my fuzzy grief-ridden brain having trouble grasping those concepts.
June 24, 2023
As I always do with great books, I slowed down as I got closer to the end. The author stays “out of the bucket,” gets hit with pitches, and always counted her own errors. Maybe my baseball metaphors aren’t a line drive (OK, I’ll stop), but her language is poetic— about baseball, family, and grief. Even death. Beautifully and skillfully written, the author leads her readers through real life and never lets us down.
June 27, 2023
A beautifully written story that weaves the author's backstory into a Little League season in the present. She explores her childhood and family relationships with her parents and brother and her grief group for two during the baseball season. You don't have to be a baseball fan to enjoy and appreciate this book. Funny and heartfelt, and at times heartbreaking. Loss is the great equalizer that we all endure. Add this book to your must read list!
December 10, 2023
I first discovered Teresa through her podcasts. She often discusses her past and I’ve always found her very engaging and honest. She does an excellent job intertwining her experiences of grieving the loss of her brother and mother with her son’s little league baseball season. I found the flow and description easy to read… not being a fan of that particular sport had no consequence on my ability to enjoy the narrative.
Highly recommend!
Highly recommend!
December 18, 2023
Teresa hits it out of the park
Teresa is far beyond a competent writer as former colleague had bestowed upon her. She has more humor, imagination and more human experiences than most pros behind their keyboards. The tempo of this book never falters in the highs of victory, joy and laughter to the lows grief loss and redemption. She provides a brilliant perspective from her journey here on Earth. (i had left this review on Audible but thought i should leave it here as well).
Teresa is far beyond a competent writer as former colleague had bestowed upon her. She has more humor, imagination and more human experiences than most pros behind their keyboards. The tempo of this book never falters in the highs of victory, joy and laughter to the lows grief loss and redemption. She provides a brilliant perspective from her journey here on Earth. (i had left this review on Audible but thought i should leave it here as well).
July 22, 2023
I’m an only child and I don’t like baseball. And yet this book made me laugh and cry on the same page. Over and over. It is at once a love letter to her dead brother and to baseball. But it’s also a person reckoning with the idea that it is useless to wish that the past had been any different than it was. Something we must all reckon with at times. I loved this beautiful book.
October 9, 2023
Inspiring!
Juggling grief, junior league baseball, parenthood, and mental survival, Teresa Strassel stitches together a mosaic of strife, questions whose answers we all seek. It’s spun within a wide enough band of her personal experiences that we will all find a piece of identifiable situations. Love this book!
Juggling grief, junior league baseball, parenthood, and mental survival, Teresa Strassel stitches together a mosaic of strife, questions whose answers we all seek. It’s spun within a wide enough band of her personal experiences that we will all find a piece of identifiable situations. Love this book!
March 4, 2024
Super well written book & I enjoyed the sentiment. It was more personal memoir than baseball memoir and that’s the only reason I gave it 3 stars. Baseball is addictive and even though I live at the fields most of the year, I found I wanted to be at the Arcadia Little League field more than this book gave me.
August 25, 2023
a woman and her dad watch her son play little league while mourning the loss of her brother. the book transitions from baseball to dying and back again seamlessly. three-quarters of the way in, i skipped to last chapter and epilogue; chapters seemed a bit repetitive at times.
May 1, 2024
I heard this author at a book festival and wondered how she could pull off a memoir/grief/little league book. Well I was wrong in doubting her. I loved the rawness of this book. I felt I was in her head. Funny, warm and delightful.
July 14, 2024
This was an audible book I listened to driving to work and during my travels. It was a moving and thought provoking book. Baseball is part of the background of the story but the real focus is the family relationships. I would recommend this to anyone who has an interest.
October 8, 2024
As someone who has both lost a sibling, and am now currently in my softball Mom era…I could definitely connect with this book. I do wish it would have included more about the past, before her brother died, and less about the intricate details of every baseball game they watched.
November 24, 2024
I don’t read very many memoirs, but I really enjoyed this story of grief, parenting, and baseball. Over the course of a Little League season, Teresa deals with her with complicated feelings about their relationship and how she was raised.
March 9, 2025
Grief books come in all types. But this approaches the complicated feelings associated with death when relationships are messy. There's humor and debilitating stuckness. And everything in between while life goes on around you.
December 19, 2025
Grief and reconciliation worked out during little league games. Great if you’ve lost a sibling, had to reconcile the failings of your parents, or want to watch some baseball with some people who have.
July 11, 2023
A grief narrative about a family
July 18, 2023
...especially if you have observed Little League Baseball in Arizona.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews