Teresa Strasser’s ‘Making It Home:’ an achingly heartfelt and comedic memoir

TV personality and author Teresa Strasser has just released her second book called “Making It Home: Life lessons from a Season of Little League.” It’s an achingly heartfelt and surprisingly funny memoir about family, grief and moving forward.

About the book

Strasser’s brother, Morgan, died from cancer, and then her mother died four months later to the day. Strasser was left with no one to mourn with but her father, a man she called “irresponsible, cantankerous and trailer park-dwelling.”

Her dad claimed not to remember her chaotic childhood, but Strasser says he was definitely a devoted grandpa. So, as her son embarked on his first season pitching in Little League, Teresa and her father formed a grief group of two, sitting in beach chairs behind the first base line.

“This is about one season of baseball I watched with my dad watching my oldest son play,” Strasser said. “My dad and I? That was our grief group. We were so deeply involved in the game of baseball. It was so comforting to us. It gave us a routine. It gave us normalcy.”

Strasser said during their time on the sidelines, she and her dad never actually discussed grief. “The only losses my dad wanted to talk about were the losses on the diamond,” she said. “And yet there were still ways it helped us remember my brother.”

Baseball was a comfort because it is a game with no clock, Strasser said. So up until the final out, anyone can win. That, she said, fills the sport with hope. “Something about it connects the past with the present.”

Strasser’s brother had played baseball, and that helped shape their memories. “The Morgan that we remembered was that kid on first base, was that kid that never missed a ground ball. For the first time since he died, my dad and I could remember the version we wanted to remember.”

About the author

Teresa Strasser is an author, a podcast host and an Emmy award-winning television writer. Radio audiences know her as Adam Carolla’s co-host. As a journalist, she is a contributor to the Los Angeles Times and The Los Angeles Jewish Journal. She has won several Los Angeles Press Club Awards, including Columnist of the Year.

Learn more about Strasser’s new book by visiting her website here.