St. Louis American sports editor Earl Austin Jr. has just completed his second book, You Might Need a Jacket: Hilarious Stories of Wacky Sports Parents. It is dedicated to the world of wild and wacky “strait-jacket” sports parents. The book is published by Prioritybooks Publications. It contains more than 200 stories, chronicling the overzealous behavior displayed at youth and amateur sporting events by parents and other loved ones. The book will be released in early August, but each week, the American sports section will feature a story from the book. In this week’s excerpt, an overzealous grandparent gets in on the act.
When you threaten to kill your grandson’s coach after he kicked the young lad off the team, you deserve a jacket.
An area basketball coach had more problems than he could deal with in one of his players so wound up removing him from the team. The young man had a pair of strait-jacket parents who were a constant thorn in the coach’s side.
However, the coup de grace came when the child’s grandfather paid the coach a visit. After a few minutes of heated discussion, dear old granddad busts out with, “If you mess with my grandson again, I’m going to kill you.”
Welcome to the club, Grandpa.
For more information on the book, check out Earl’s website at www.earlaustinjr.com If you have any strait-jacket parent stories to share with Earl Austin Jr., you can contact him at eaustin@stlamerican.com.