By Matthew W. Moran

Dan Shaughnessy has been a lightning rod for controversy in his many years as a Boston-area sportswriter. This time, however, the best-selling author takes a break from the vitriol with “Senior Year” – an ode to his son’s final season of high school baseball.

“Sports connect generations,” notes Shaughnessy. “Parents and children don’t go to rock concerts together. They are obligated to disagree about politics, religion, fashion, food, hair, and morality. But they still gather to watch the Red Sox in the family room, even when they can’t find common ground anywhere else.”

Ironically, it is the father who always wished he could play with the big boys who finds himself as the parent of a bona fide star. Sam Shaughnessy is a power-hitting first baseman for Newton North High School who finds himself being recruited for his skills on the diamond by schools like Notre Dame and Boston College.

A feel-good story, “Senior Year” is more an elegy to the game that both father and son love, than it is a pitch-by-pitch recap. The author writes engagingly throughout keenly observes the pleasures and heartaches of parenting teens in the 21st century. At times both Shaughnessy the father and the author come off as a bit self-indulgent and the book has more than a minor tendency to ramble. Nonetheless, “Senior Year” makes for an excellent gift for fathers and sons to share. ( )