The Road to Cooperstown: A Father, Two Sons, and the Journey of a Lifetime

By Tom Stanton

Book Overview

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 characters: 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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312303505
• ISBN13: 9780312303501
• Release Date: June 2003
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.7" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Stanton Strikes Gold Again

"The Road to Cooperstown" is one of those books that you always hope you'll stumble across some day and when you do, you promptly try to force it on everyone you've ever met! I know I did. Stanton has long been one of my favorite writers. I've had the privilege of meeting him and talking baseball with him, both were big honors. He is a die-hard baseball fan, from a die-hard baseball family. This book chronicles his long overdue road trip to Cooperstown to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame with his father. As always Stanton's beautiful writing voice leaps off the pages and into your heart. As a man who has always connected with his father through baseball, this book meant a lot to me. I recommend this (and anything else by Stanton) to readers of all types.

Great Read! Highly recommended!

This book was given to me as a gift before my road trip to the quaint village of Cooperstown!!! My partner & I were going to Holy Grounds of baseball immortals for a few days, and as we were road tripping it from Ohio to New York, we took turns reading aloud to eachother this book. I have to tell you (having been to Cooperstown before - and being a HUGE baseball fan all my life) I could vizualize everything that was being described - page by page in Mr. Stanton's book! The personal trip for him, and hearing/reading it from his perspective was refreshing, and heartwarming! Strongly recommend this book for ANYONE who enjoys the sport of baseball...great read, and made my "Road to Cooperstown" a memorable one as well!!! A side note, I had the privelage of meeting the Author at a recent book signing event promoting his new book Ty & The Babe (which I purchased and I am reading now)...he is as warm, and personable as I imagine from reading the pages of his book! Thank You for a wonderful book, and sharing your personal experiences and memories ----

Another emotional baseball saga from Tom Stanton

Like Tom Stanton's first book about Tiger Stadium's final season, this book combines great baseball stories into a family pilgramage. We learn not only about Cooperstown, but what it means to Stanton and his family. We get to know the Stantons in the same intimate way we come to know Cooperstown. You will very much enjoy this book.

Stanton in the Running for a 2nd CASEY Award

Great subject and wonderful execution. Even veteran Cooperstown-goers will learn things about the town and the Hall of Fame. No one has ever repeated as a CASEY Award winner. Will Stanton be the first?

One Family's Journey To Baseball's Shrine

I loved this book, and I think most baseball fans will, too. If "Field of Dreams" is your favorite baseball film, if you believe in baseball as poetry, baseball as religion, baseball as the glue binding fathers to sons, then this book is definitely for you.The dream of visiting Cooperstown and the Hall of Fame first took hold of author Tom Stanton in the summer of 1972. His mother's illness prevented the trip from happening then, but an invitation to speak at the shrine after publication of his first book ("The Final Season") finally made it happen. He asked his father and older brother to join him, the men who first awakened in him the love of the game.Chapters about their trip and the hall itself are interspersed with chapters looking back to 1972. Baseball memories, and the theme of the game as a metaphor for life, provide the interconnecting thread. It's a journey across the miles for the Stantons, but also a journey through the years. I'm glad to have been able to share it with them, and I hope you will, too.