Mike Lupica's New Book, "Million Dollar Throw," Is Not About His Own Childrens' Failures

Mike Lupica, beloved sports columnist and author, has written five consecutive New York Time bestselling young adult novels. His latest, out today, is called Million Dollar Throw, and his been billed as the most heartwarming one yet. Naturally, Imus tried to kill that sentiment, as he does with most joy in this world.

Million Dollar Throw is about a 13 year-old boy named Nate Brody, whose father has recently lost his job. Nate, the star quarterback on his eighth grade football team, wins a contest to try to make a million dollar throw at halftime of a New England Patriots game.

"I wanted to do something about what the economy has done to families who got blindsided by it," Lupica said. "I wanted to give a boy a chance to get his family out of it.

At which point Imus saw fit to call Lupica "a whiny, little, panty-wearing, screaming, almost-commie," who previously used his own son's failure for personal gain with his first young adult novel, Travel Team.

"My middle son got cut from his seventh grade travel basketball team with another boy, and I thought it was because they were too small," said Lupica (who is too small). "About a week later, in a moment of complete baby boom, Catcher-in-the-Rye insanity, I took all the kids who got cut and started my own team."

Long story short (pun intended), Lupica's rogue team got better and better, and won their final game by a point over a team that had killed them earlier in the season.

"It's a great story," Imus relented. "If it's true."

He then wondered if all of Lupica's four children must now fail at stuff to generate book ideas. To which Lupica rightly replied, "What's wrong with you?"

His children are more than just his audience — they are his critics. "The boys, when they were younger, used to read them as I go," he said. "Now my daughter Hannah will finish a book and say, 'It was great, Daddy," and she'll hand me a piece of paper that says, 'Mistakes.'"

Lupica picks his kids' brains about whether conversations in his books are realistic. "The only way to have your child look at you like you're dumber than dirt is to say something like, 'Are they boyfriend and girlfriend?'" he joked.

In Million Dollar Throw, Nate Brody must throw a football 30 yards through a 30-inch hole in order to win the money at stake. Lupica will hold a similar contest around the country for kids 8 to 15 years old, and give them a chance to win one thousand dollars.

All of his young adult books, he added, are about kids having to overcome stuff. When he goes around to speak at schools, the message is always the same: "Anybody can get knocked down. That doesn't require any talent. It's how you get back up."

It's good advice for Imus in the Morning guests, too.

-Julie Kanfer