Bill Plaschke

A High School Football Team's Rise from the Ashes

Paradise Found

Chuck Knox

The man behind the NFL head coach is revealed in a candid look at his climb from a life of poverty to one of success in the sports arena--a story filled with personal remembrances, anecdotes, and unflinching opinions

The Life of an NFL Coach

Hard Knox

"Friday Night Lights meets Unbroken." —Tony Reali | "One of the most profound stories you will ever read." —Ian O'Connor | "Plaschke delivers a masterpiece." —Jeff Pearlman From L.A. Times columnist and ESPN Around the Horn panelist Bill Plaschke, a story of tragedy, triumph, and the remarkable power of high school football in one small California town On November 8, 2018, the Camp Fire ravaged the town of Paradise, California. The fire, which burned up to 80 acres per minute, killed 86 people, and nearly every building and home in the town was reduced to ashes. In a single day, Paradise, a proud working-class town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas, saw its population fall from 25,000 to 2,000. The Paradise High football team had long been the town’s source of joy and inspiration. But in the wake of the fire, their season was abruptly cancelled on the eve of the playoffs. Their championship hopes were gone. Their program’s survival seemed doubtful—it wasn’t even clear whether Paradise High would continue to exist. Coach Rick Prinz had planned to retire that year after guiding the Paradise High Bobcats for two decades. But after the fire forever altered his beloved town, he realized he couldn’t walk away. What ensued was the challenge of a lifetime. Of the 104 football players at Paradise, 95 had lost their homes. His varsity squad, which had stood 76 strong the previous season, was down to 22. Most of those who remained were homeless, sleep-deprived, lost. On the first day of spring practice, on a debris-ridden patch of grass at nearby Chico Airport, Prinz’s team didn’t even have a football. It was the humble beginning to a memorable journey. Bill Plaschke, longtime columnist for the Los Angeles Times, followed the Paradise Bobcats throughout a most remarkable season. In this gripping, deeply-reported story of tragedy and resilience, Plaschke reveals the unique power of sports to unite, to inspire, and to heal. As the Paradise players fought to rebuild their broken lives, they found strength in the support of their teammates—and as football returned to Paradise, so, too, did the spirit of the town itself.

Tommy Lasorda

An award-winning sportswriter teams up with LA Dodgers manager and Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda to reveal the secrets of his unlikely success. Tommy Lasorda is baseball's true immortal and one of its larger than life figures. A former pitcher who was overshadowed by Sandy Koufax, Lasorda went on to a Hall of Fame career as a manager with one of baseball's most storied franchises. His teams won two World Series, four National League pennants, and eight division titles. He was twice named National League manager of the year and he also led the United States baseball team to the gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics. In I Live for This! award-winning sportswriter Bill Plaschke shows us one of baseball's last living legends as we've never seen him before, revealing the man behind the myth, the secrets to his amazing, unlikely success, and his unvarnished opinions on the state of the game. Bravely and brilliantly, I Live for This! dissects the personality to give us the person. By the end we’re left with an indelible portrait of a legend that, if Tommy Lasorda has anything to say about it, we won’t ever forget.

Baseball's Last True Believer

I Live for This!

Dick Williams

The twenty-one-season baseball veteran and three-time Manager of the Year expounds his winning baseball philosophy, recounts some highlights from his illustrious career, and shares his unbridled enthusiasm for baseball

Bill Plaschke

About

Books

Join the club