Book Review: Playing to Win by Michael Lewis

Youth sports is a massive industry. And it ain’t slowing down.

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In Michael Lewis’s Playing to Win he talks about his daughter Dixie’s youth softball career. He talks about her growth and the lessons the sport taught her. He also discusses his commitment- personal coaching, traveling, and more. And he reveals a great ending, with Dixie playing softball (and more importantly getting an education) at Pomona College.

Dixie Lewis is the textbook example of what sports can offer: the lessons it teaches, the friendships it develops, and the opportunities it opens up.

Yet, Lewis is left questioning the entire industry: the financial burden it puts on families, the anxiety it causes everyone, and the overall maniacal focus it places on a child’s achievement.

Playing to Win is as a few different things:

1. It is a cautionary tale to parents.

2. It is a reminder that there are winners and losers- both on the field and at the end of the journey.

3. It is a siren to the sports business world. Youth sports is a massive industry. And it ain’t slowing down.

Lewis’s Personal Investment

Throughout the book, Lewis gives us a great view of his family’s story. For his daughter’s pre college career of more than 1,600 games, the Lewis family gave up a lot. And they have the receipts:

1. Trips to Portland, Denver, Las Vegas, Orlando, Boston, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Massachusetts

2. 27 nights in hotel rooms in one year

3. 2,000 team practices

4. 1,000 private batting practices, pitching lessons, and weight training sessions

5. The absence of family dinners, vacations, and more

6. Tons of parental anxiety

On top of that, Lewis coached- which meant 30 hours a week on softball.

Remember, Lewis is not juggling softball and a regular 9-5. This is the extremely accomplished author of Liar’s Poker, Moneyball, The Blind Side, The Big Short, and more.

Take a look at what he wrote below:

“One April I took off for a week to work on a piece about then President Barack Obama. I flew on Air Force One back and forth to Cartagena, Colombia knowing the moment then plane landed in Washington I’d have to race to catch a flight home to supervise a tournament. As I was running off Air Force One the President grabbed me and asked if I wanted to ride with him back to the White House just to talk some more. The curious thing isn’t that I declined an invitation from the President of the United States, or that I explained to the President of the United States the importance of this particular girls softball tournament, it was that it didn’t even occur to me that there was anything unusual about declining the invitation. It was the sort of choice I now routinely made”

Why Did He Do This?

Lewis- like all parents- was involved because he loves his children. He wants them to do well. And parents who grew up playing sports know the lessons that can be taken from the game and applied throughout life.

But why did he take it so far?

Why did he head down to the Cal Berkley Softball team, “toss a sack of cash” on the field and offer to pay them “as much as you want to come and fix as many of our children as you can”?

Why did another dad start keeping detailed statistics of the team’s players and share it with Lewis. And why did Lewis agree to use it, saying:

“It never occurred to me that there was anything off about spending a half an hour a week analyzing the batting statistics of an 8 year old girl and wondering how I could use them to improve our chances.”

I am not sure I can give a good answer to why. I am not sure he can.

Is Michael Lewis Just Crazy?

What made this story so amazing was that it was not just about the Lewis family going overboard. Nor was it just about a niche industry for those who can afford to give their kids an advantage.

Rather, it is a story of families across the country. Coat to coast. Middle class to the 1%. Softball to lacrosse to volleyball to everywhere else. Parents will do anything for their kids.

Below is just some of what is going on:

1. Travel teams are starting at $2,000 per season….with multiple seasons per year

2. According to a TD Ameritrade survey, 77% of American parents said the costs of their kids sports lives have caused them to change their family’s financial lives. And 25% have taken on credit card debt or bank debt.

3. A 2017 study at Utah State determined youth sports consumed 10.5% of household income, estimating the entire youth sports market at $70B per year.

Why The Big Investment?

The most common tangible reason I hear for parents spending on youth sports is college, which provides two payoffs:

1. Scholarships. The cost of a college education continues to skyrocket. Due to this rising cost- and the growth of college sports- the value of athletic scholarships has risen from $300 million per year in the 1990s to $3 billion today.

2. Admittance. This was the side I had not previously considered. Lewis wrote in the 1990s one out of six applicants that applied got in to Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. In 2019, those numbers fell to about one in twenty….unless you play sports.

   Offering another data point, he wrote 1/3 of the Williams College class of 2023 played a varsity sport. Williams claims a 15% admission rate….but for non athletes that number drops to 9%.

   Simply put, outside of your last name being on a building, playing a sport has become the single best way to ensure a spot at an elite academic institution.

I personally question these investments, but that is easy to do when objectively looking at statistics. It is much harder when it is your son or your daughter.

What Does This Mean?

There are few truths that stretch across race, income, geography, and more. One that does is that parents want what is best for their kids.

We can argue if the financial cost is worth it. And we can question if the increased anxiety and pressure is as well.

But at the end of the day, parents will continue doing whatever they can to help their children achieve their goals…and sports is another avenue where that is obvious.

And as long as this remains true, youth sports will remain big business.

Michael Lewis may question the time and money his family invested. He may hate the extreme pressure put on boys and girls across the country. He may wonder if we could reallocate resources elsewhere.

But I bet if you gave him truth serum and asked if he’d change anything about the path he and Dixie took….and took together….he wouldn’t change a thing.