Book Review: The Road To Cooperstown
by Laura Nist
August 23, 2003
The Road To Cooperstown -
A Father, Two Sons and the Journey of a Lifetime
By Tom Stanton
Published by Thomas Dunne Books
p. 261
The Road to Cooperstown is the most recent book from author Tom Stanton
who won rave reviews for his first book, The Final Season. This story
is a nostalgic, autobiographical account of his trip to the National Baseball
Hall of Fame with his father and his brother.
As a young boy his life revolved around the game of baseball; he played
baseball with his friends, collected baseball cards, lived and died with
his hometown team, the Detroit Tigers, and dreamed about going to Cooperstown.
He plotted ways to get his father to take them and badgered him endlessly.
Unfortunately due to his mother’s illness and recurrent hospital
visits the trip never happened. Life went on - he eventually got married
and started a family of his own and though he never made it to the Hall
of Fame the dream remained. After his first book was published he received
an invitation to speak in Cooperstown during a Hall of Fame weekend. He
wasted no time in accepting and he invited his brother and his elderly
father along for the ride.
The book is a journey – a journey from the author’s childhood
to the present day. It opens in July of 1972 – Ty Cobb’s birthday
- and goes back and forth in time from the present day road trip that
the author is taking with his family to his memories of the past. In addition,
it is a journey of self-discovery and of getting to know your father and
older brother as adults and perhaps finally relating to each other on
the same level while bonding man to man.
Every true baseball fan entertains dreams of visiting Cooperstown; at
least I know that I have been dreaming of making the voyage for years
- I love the history and the nostalgia of the game. Reading this book
may be the next best thing to being there; it is filled with accounts
of the past, both historical and nostalgic and Stanton takes the reader
along on the voyage with him. He tells of the history of baseball and
how the Hall of Fame came to be in Cooperstown. He also tells us all about
the Tiger greats and many other players from days gone by. He literally
guides the reader around the Hall of Fame – exhibit to exhibit -
intermingling his own personal memories of each player that has been enshrined.
One of the things that I most enjoyed about the book was also somewhat
bothersome. Stanton relates absolutely everything to baseball. In the
opening chapter as he is introducing his family he tells us that his dad
was born in 1920, which was the same year that Carl Mays accidentally
killed Indians infielder Ray Chapman with a beanball. His mother was born
two years later – the same year that Ruth and Pipp went at it in
the dugout.
Not that anything is wrong with these connections that he makes throughout
the story but in the beginning I found it difficult to immerse myself
into the book because of all of the correlations – I just wanted
to get to the heart of the story. But to an extent this is something that
as baseball fans we can all relate to – I will always remember where
I was when Thurman Munson’s plane crashed, when Pete Rose broke
Ty Cobb’s hit record and when Barry Bonds hit homerun number 600.
The author’s correlations, and there were quite a few of them, help
to illustrate to the reader just how Stanton’s life revolved around
the game of baseball; everything that happened to him as a child paralleled
something that was happening with the game. And that really is the heart
of the story.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I think most baseball fans will too.
It was a quick and entertaining read and though you will probably learn
more about the Detroit Tigers than you ever cared to, the tales of baseball
days gone by will certainly add to your desire to visit Cooperstown if
you haven’t already made the trek.
Give this book 2.5 balls out of four and have your travel agent book you
a trip to upstate New York immediately!
Our Rating System is based on a four ball system
as follows:
One Ball: Average. It has something to say but is nothing special.
Two Balls: Something men usually have - also means its a cut above
average, and worth reading/owning.
Three balls: Stands out from its peers and is highly recommended.
Four Balls: More than just what two men have when hanging out
together, it means it is an exceptional book that truly earns a walk -
straight to the local book store to get a copy.
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