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A lot of dads, though, didn’t necessarily step forward and volunteer to be the coach. Instead, everyone else took a step back. Now, they’re stuck leading a team and they have no idea how to run a practice, coach certain skills or communicate with parents.

Enter Mike Matheny.

Yes, the four-time Gold Glove–winning Major League Baseball catcher, Mike Matheny. Yes, the former manager for the Cardinals and the Kansas City Royals, that Mike Matheny.

His latest book, “Dad Coach: How to Lead Kids to Succeed On and Off the Baseball Field� is full of the tips and tricks that you need if you’re coaching 12-and-unders in baseball. There are even 75 QR codes in the book that will pull up videos featuring Matheny and other dad coaches (his sons, former teammates and more) showing you the drills and warm-ups.

Matheny will be talking about the book — which just hit bookstores on Tuesday — and signing copies on March 28 at the Clark Family Branch of the St. Louis County Library.

“We believe most dads, if given the proper guidance, can pull this off and get the boys off to a great start,� Matheny says.

This is Matheny’s second book about coaching in youth programs. The first one, 2017’s “The Matheny Manifesto: A Young Manager’s Old-School Views on Success in ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ and Lifeâ€� was based on a letter that Matheny wrote that went viral.

In 2007, right after he’d retired from Major League Baseball but hadn’t yet become a manager, Matheny was asked to coach a 10-and-under league in Florida. Matheny decided he would do it, but before he fully accepted, he’d read the parents a letter about his coaching philosophy, so that everyone understood expectations.

Matheny opened the letter by saying, “I have always said I would coach only a team of orphans. Why? Because the biggest problem in youth sports is the parents.�

He went on to say that youth sports was all about the kid-athletes. Parents should be quiet in the stands, their cheers only added more pressure, and Matheny would talk to umpires if they made a bad call. Parents needed to keep their mouths shut.

“We may not win every game, but we will be the classiest coaches, players and parents at every game we play. The boys are going to show respect for the teammates, for the position and the umpires — no matter what,� the letter said.

The parents agreed, and Matheny started coaching. One of the other coaches shared the letter online and it became known as “Matheny’s Manifesto.� It gained traction, and Matheny was approached about writing a book. By then, he was an MLB manager, having signed with the Cardinals in 2008.

“The Matheny Manifesto� was more about philosophy, so “Dad Coach� is the nuts and bolts follow-up. But both books make the same claim: the true purpose of youth sports is creating positive, character-building experiences for kids.

“Ninety-nine percent of these kids are not going to go on and play that sport at the varsity level in high school, let alone on to college,� Matheny says.

Despite this, a lot of coaches and parents are focused on winning games at all costs.

“We’ve gotten off track on what success looks like,� Matheny says. “Some parents think their 5-year-old needs to be on the most expensive team in town, and that snowballs into this crazy level of expectation. Before you know it, the financial, competition and performance pressures are too much, and the kids walk away from the game.�

Winning isn’t even in Matheny’s top-three goals for the game. For him it’s about “teaching the boys to play baseball the right way, making a positive impact on them as young men, and doing all of this with class,� he wrote in his “manifesto.�

“I see a coach as a multiplier. Every coach shapes at least 12 young minds. But what I found is the impact goes beyond that — to families, communities and generations,� Matheny says.

As a professional manager, Matheny had different priorities.

“We are paid to win (in the MLB), so it’s the complete opposite of what the expectation is in youth sports,� he says. “Major League Baseball is single-goal minded. We’re putting butts in seats to continue the business of the game.�

Having managed both youth and professional teams, Matheny says they’re hard to compare. “I love the challenge of being with some of the greatest athletes on planet Earth and trying to help them,� he says. “But I absolutely loved, as well, the opportunity to invest into these young men.�

In addition to the physical side of the game, the book has advice about interacting with parents, how to manage a season and coach in real time, and what to do in the postseason. There is also talk about the mental game, which Matheny thinks is of utmost importance.

“You could learn potentially 10 games worth of material in one game if you’re thinking, ‘OK, if this happens, if that happens, what should we do?’� The idea is to rehearse different scenarios to understand the game better.

“The mental side of the game is the preparation, is the discipline, is the thinking through all the what ifs,� Matheny says.

Matheny is partially inspired by his own Little League team that he joined in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, back when he was 10. That team produced five professional players. But the main thing was that it instilled a love of the game.

“You’re going to make it a great time for these kids, so they can’t wait for baseball season to roll back around,� Matheny says. “If you do that, it doesn’t matter how many games you won or lost.�