The second Portland native in a week (following Daniel Arnold) who now lives in southern California, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jesse Katz has written a unique memoir in his new book, The Opposite Field (Crown). More than a book of self, this is one of family, community, culture. When his young son's Little League program was facing organizational collapse, Jesse Katz stepped into the role of league commissioner—and found himself in a culturally rich, complex mix of worlds. "A journalist turned Little League commissioner reflects on the role of his son's team in their lives and their community ... From the time [his son] Max could walk, the author took him to La Loma, the local park in colorful Monterey Park ... The league—mostly Mexican kids in an Asian-dominated neighborhood—was riddled with problems, from a lack of equipment to delinquent parents, but it was everything to Katz and his son ... Katz's writing is warm but admirably unsentimental .... The bond between the author and his son is touching, but the real story is the community as a whole, and how, as an outsider, Katz came to have such a natural role in it. A surprisingly complex, well-crafted story, much deeper than the average baseball memoir." - Kirkus Reviews.