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The Road to Cooperstown: A Father, Two Sons, and the Journey of a Lifetime
Every true baseball fan dreams of visiting Cooperstown. Some make the trip as boys, when the promise of a spot in the lineup with the Yankees or Red Sox or Tigers glows on the horizon, as certain as the sunrise. Some go later in life, long after their Little League years, to glimpse the past, not the future. And still others talk of somedays and of pilgrimages that await.
For Tom Stanton, the trip took nearly three decades.
The dream first grabbed hold of him in 1972, in the era of Vietnam and Watergate and Johnny Bench and the Oakland Athletics. Stanton, then an eleven-year-old Michigan boy who lived for the game, became fascinated by the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the sport’s spiritual home, the place to which great players aspire. He plotted ways to convince his father to take him to the famous village along Lake Otsego.
But his plans for that season never materialized. They disappeared in the turmoil caused by his mother’s life-threatening illness and his brother’s antiwar activities. Still, the dream lingered through the summers that followed. Twenty-nine years later, he invited the two men who had introduced him to the sport, his elderly father and his older brother, to join him on a trip to the Hall. Finally, they embarked on their long-delayed adventure.
The Road to Cooperstown is a true story populated with colorful a philanthropic family that launched the museum and uses its wealth to, among other things, ensure that McDonald’s stays out of the turn-of-the-century downtown; the devoted fan who wrote a book to get his hero into the Hall of Fame; the Guyana native who grew up without baseball but comes to the induction ceremony every year; the librarian on a mission to preserve his great-grandfather’s memory; the baseball legends who appear suddenly along Main Street; and the dying man who fulfills one of his last wishes on a warm day in spring.
As he did with his award-winning book, The Final Season, Tom Stanton again tells a magical tale of fathers, brothers, and baseball heroes certain to resonate with sports fans everywhere. This adventure, though brief, provides a true bonding experience that is the heart of a sweet, one-of-a-kind book about baseball, family, the Hall of Fame, and the town with which it shares a rich heritage.
For Tom Stanton, the trip took nearly three decades.
The dream first grabbed hold of him in 1972, in the era of Vietnam and Watergate and Johnny Bench and the Oakland Athletics. Stanton, then an eleven-year-old Michigan boy who lived for the game, became fascinated by the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the sport’s spiritual home, the place to which great players aspire. He plotted ways to convince his father to take him to the famous village along Lake Otsego.
But his plans for that season never materialized. They disappeared in the turmoil caused by his mother’s life-threatening illness and his brother’s antiwar activities. Still, the dream lingered through the summers that followed. Twenty-nine years later, he invited the two men who had introduced him to the sport, his elderly father and his older brother, to join him on a trip to the Hall. Finally, they embarked on their long-delayed adventure.
The Road to Cooperstown is a true story populated with colorful a philanthropic family that launched the museum and uses its wealth to, among other things, ensure that McDonald’s stays out of the turn-of-the-century downtown; the devoted fan who wrote a book to get his hero into the Hall of Fame; the Guyana native who grew up without baseball but comes to the induction ceremony every year; the librarian on a mission to preserve his great-grandfather’s memory; the baseball legends who appear suddenly along Main Street; and the dying man who fulfills one of his last wishes on a warm day in spring.
As he did with his award-winning book, The Final Season, Tom Stanton again tells a magical tale of fathers, brothers, and baseball heroes certain to resonate with sports fans everywhere. This adventure, though brief, provides a true bonding experience that is the heart of a sweet, one-of-a-kind book about baseball, family, the Hall of Fame, and the town with which it shares a rich heritage.
- GenresBaseballNonfictionSports
260 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2003
About the author
Tom Stanton
14 books40 followersDear Readers:
I feel fortunate to have been writing professionally since age 18, beginning back in the final year of Jimmy Carter's presidency, when I sported a poorly executed, Peter Frampton-inspired perm. Decades on, my hair is gone, but writing remains central to my life. I've been a reporter, editor, publisher and, more recently, an author and journalism professor (Go University of Detroit Mercy Titans!). If you know me for my books, it's likely for the Tiger Stadium memoir The Final Season, the Quill Award finalist Ty and The Babe or the feverishly publicized Hank Aaron and the Home Run That Changed America. My forthcoming book is Terror in the City of Champions, a true story set in mid-1930s Detroit.
OK, enough of the formal stuff. Some things you might be interested to know:
* Elton John's music has been a big part of my life since "Bennie and the Jets," which is no excuse for accidentally setting off one of his legendary tantrums backstage one evening. (My fault.)
* I drink too many ... Tim Hortons Ice Caps.
* The three biggest thrills to come my way due to book writing: going with Elmore Leonard to a Detroit Tigers baseball game, hearing Alec Baldwin read an excerpt from one of my books on television and receiving an unexpected phone call from one of my favorite authors, Pat Conroy.
* My eternally kind wife and I care for four feral cats -- Pumpkin, Sox, Frisco and Panther -- who dictate our schedule.
* When I travel, I inevitably wind up searching out bookstores and libraries. (We probably have that in common.)
* One of my uncles, Edward Stanton, was a photographer in Detroit in the 1930s, and his shots of black Detroit can be found here: http://reuther.wayne.edu/image/tid/1983
I feel fortunate to have been writing professionally since age 18, beginning back in the final year of Jimmy Carter's presidency, when I sported a poorly executed, Peter Frampton-inspired perm. Decades on, my hair is gone, but writing remains central to my life. I've been a reporter, editor, publisher and, more recently, an author and journalism professor (Go University of Detroit Mercy Titans!). If you know me for my books, it's likely for the Tiger Stadium memoir The Final Season, the Quill Award finalist Ty and The Babe or the feverishly publicized Hank Aaron and the Home Run That Changed America. My forthcoming book is Terror in the City of Champions, a true story set in mid-1930s Detroit.
OK, enough of the formal stuff. Some things you might be interested to know:
* Elton John's music has been a big part of my life since "Bennie and the Jets," which is no excuse for accidentally setting off one of his legendary tantrums backstage one evening. (My fault.)
* I drink too many ... Tim Hortons Ice Caps.
* The three biggest thrills to come my way due to book writing: going with Elmore Leonard to a Detroit Tigers baseball game, hearing Alec Baldwin read an excerpt from one of my books on television and receiving an unexpected phone call from one of my favorite authors, Pat Conroy.
* My eternally kind wife and I care for four feral cats -- Pumpkin, Sox, Frisco and Panther -- who dictate our schedule.
* When I travel, I inevitably wind up searching out bookstores and libraries. (We probably have that in common.)
* One of my uncles, Edward Stanton, was a photographer in Detroit in the 1930s, and his shots of black Detroit can be found here: http://reuther.wayne.edu/image/tid/1983
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 18, 2011
When I picked up this book, I was looking for something easy and light to read. What I got was much more than I bargained for.
The author is, and always has been, a baseball afficianado. As many of us, as children, he loved, lived and breathed the game and learned it from his father and older brother. Growing up, just outside of Detroit, the Tigers were his family's team and he would go to the games, watch them on tv with his dad and listen on the radio, alongside broadcaster Ernie Harwell, long into the night. He memorized sats, read box scores, collected baseball cards, played the game and dreamed of the day he would be enshrined in Cooperstown, alongside his idol, Al Kaline. His biggest wish, all through those years, was to go to the Baseball Hall of Fame, in Cooperstown, NY. Though, he will never get there, until many years later, due to his mother's illness and his father's devotiion to her and the rest of the family. Finaly, at the age of 42, Stanton gets asked to give a lecture at the Baseball Hall of Fame. He quickly decides that he will take the journey and have his father and brother join him on it, as he had so wished many years ago.
Maybe it's age, maybe it's nostalgia, I don't know, but whatever it is, this book sucked me in and I couldn't put it down. It's not about a roadtrip, per say. It's about bridging the distance, it's about family and the ties that hold them together (in this case baseabll) and a bond that no matter how strained, will always be there and our ability to, hopefully, see that as we grow up and older.
For me, it's touched a nerve. I remember learning the game, watching it on tv,listening on the radio, playing inckyards, on diamonds, in empty lots and on the beach as well as listening to it with my dad. It signaled summer, relaxation, fun and togetherness. Some of my fondest memories are of family and baseball (playoff games, World Series wins, my own exploits and those of my brothers), as well as some of my worst (Thurman Munson's passing in an aiplane crash and my favorite players getting traded). In the end, baseball is important to me. It's given me a commection to my family from the past, it has kept me connected to who I am and it is something I have passed down to my sons. To me, baseball means FAMILY.
Before I even read this book, I was planning a trip to the Hall. I was going with my own son, my dad, my cousin and my unlce. These are the people that I grew up and learned the game with and from and the ones who are helping to teach my boys and link generation to generation. Now, after finishing it, it's a no brainer. It will happen, it MUST happen and it will be the conection that we all share, the one that keeps us tethered to one another. No matter how old we are, no matter how far we roam and no matter where we end up, this is one of the intertwining links that bond us all together and give us each a part of one another.
The author is, and always has been, a baseball afficianado. As many of us, as children, he loved, lived and breathed the game and learned it from his father and older brother. Growing up, just outside of Detroit, the Tigers were his family's team and he would go to the games, watch them on tv with his dad and listen on the radio, alongside broadcaster Ernie Harwell, long into the night. He memorized sats, read box scores, collected baseball cards, played the game and dreamed of the day he would be enshrined in Cooperstown, alongside his idol, Al Kaline. His biggest wish, all through those years, was to go to the Baseball Hall of Fame, in Cooperstown, NY. Though, he will never get there, until many years later, due to his mother's illness and his father's devotiion to her and the rest of the family. Finaly, at the age of 42, Stanton gets asked to give a lecture at the Baseball Hall of Fame. He quickly decides that he will take the journey and have his father and brother join him on it, as he had so wished many years ago.
Maybe it's age, maybe it's nostalgia, I don't know, but whatever it is, this book sucked me in and I couldn't put it down. It's not about a roadtrip, per say. It's about bridging the distance, it's about family and the ties that hold them together (in this case baseabll) and a bond that no matter how strained, will always be there and our ability to, hopefully, see that as we grow up and older.
For me, it's touched a nerve. I remember learning the game, watching it on tv,listening on the radio, playing inckyards, on diamonds, in empty lots and on the beach as well as listening to it with my dad. It signaled summer, relaxation, fun and togetherness. Some of my fondest memories are of family and baseball (playoff games, World Series wins, my own exploits and those of my brothers), as well as some of my worst (Thurman Munson's passing in an aiplane crash and my favorite players getting traded). In the end, baseball is important to me. It's given me a commection to my family from the past, it has kept me connected to who I am and it is something I have passed down to my sons. To me, baseball means FAMILY.
Before I even read this book, I was planning a trip to the Hall. I was going with my own son, my dad, my cousin and my unlce. These are the people that I grew up and learned the game with and from and the ones who are helping to teach my boys and link generation to generation. Now, after finishing it, it's a no brainer. It will happen, it MUST happen and it will be the conection that we all share, the one that keeps us tethered to one another. No matter how old we are, no matter how far we roam and no matter where we end up, this is one of the intertwining links that bond us all together and give us each a part of one another.
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December 29, 2007My second book.
May 17, 2019
I cried. Several times. This book is well-written, reads quickly and puts into words what many baseball fans feel but often can’t say about their favorite sport. It tells of the bonds it creates for families and friends, how each season marks our childhood and gives us memories we will always cherish. It’s filled with stories of how baseball is a comfort in difficult times, and how the HOF serves as this ultimate destination, not just for players, but for fans as well.
Read this book if you’re a baseball fan.
Read this book if you’re a baseball fan.
January 2, 2021
I read this years ago and loved it. What a journey.
April 5, 2023
An exceptional story about a father and his sons and how they connect with baseball as a backdrop. This is not a baseball book, it a wonderful book about relationships.
November 27, 2023
I bought this book a few years ago after taking a once-in-a-lifetime, multi-generational trip to Cooperstown with my grandpa, dad, uncle, and cousin. All of us were in different decades of life (my cousin under ten, me in my twenties, my uncle in his forties, my dad in his fifties, and my grandpa in his seventies) and all of us had different relationships to baseball. Mostly, we went so that my grandpa—a minor league pitcher for a few years around 1960—could see the Hall of Fame for the first time. My dad and I already had, when I was a kid, but I relished the chance to go back with my grandpa and to hear all his stories and memories of baseball. Tom Stanton’s book reminded me that this pilgrimage isn’t an uncommon one. Fathers and sons (and, certainly, some mothers and daughters, too) through the years have taken the trip (usually after talking about it for years) to the tiny hamlet in upstate New York (which, baseball fan or not, is a lovely place I’d recommend to anyone). Stanton is my dad’s age, so some of his baseball references went over my head—but I also knew plenty of them, stories of the players that time hasn’t forgotten. This book is sneaky good, by which I mean it didn’t blow me away with thrills or shocking turns, nor did it educate me about baseball or even Cooperstown or the Hall of Fame (there are certainly facts in this book that I wasn’t aware of, but this isn’t a fact-heavy book). Instead, the book is a forty-year-old man’s reflections on his life so far and of his elderly father’s life, as it enters what could have been its final decade (instead, Joe lived another 15 years!). It bounces back and forth between the titular trip to Cooperstown and stories about the author’s childhood in Warren, Michigan and his father’s childhood in Detroit. It’s a personal book, like a family history that was made public. Stanton writes about conversations he has with baseball fans at Cooperstown at the same time he and his father and brother are there. The book busts the myths of baseball’s invention and acknowledges its imperfections, but at the same time romanticizes it. How can you not romanticize a sport that’s so enmeshed with the history of this country? And how can you not fall in love with the sport (for the first time or not) after reading this book?
March 22, 2016
This is a superb follow-up to The Final Season, exploding the earlier memoirs' focus on a single team to the whole of American baseball. Like Final Season, stories of a diverse array of pilgrims, curators and knights of the game compose a mosaic situating the place of baseball in America's soul, warmly embraced by an overarching narrative of a long-deferred journey to (and through) the Hall of Fame. My own visit to that hallowed temple was a mix of emotions, as I was the connecting glue between a brother who was deeply engaged in every article, comma and decimal point of every exhibit, and a son whose interest in the game was confined to watching it in a stadium. The boy and I have evolved toward my brother's pole in the ensuing years, and this account brought a lot of smiles and not a few tears to my face.
August 22, 2012
A nice baseball story by a writer from Detroit who grew up in the late 50's and 60's. It was relevant to me having experienced the same era with Al Kaline, Ernie Harwell and Belle Isle trips with my family. The same author wrote "The Final Season" chronicling the last season at Tiger Stadium by going to every home game.
August 26, 2011
If you've been to Cooperstown, or hope some day to go, then this story will tug at your heart strings.
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July 23, 2013Another great one by tom stanton. Reminds me of my own trip to Cooperstown with my father.
May 9, 2014
a great book for baseball fans and a story of growing up in the 60 and 70's.
November 22, 2010
good sad ending wasn't what i was expecting
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews