Review: Stolen Season: A Journey Through America and Baseball's Minor Leagues

Stolen Season: A Journey Through America and Baseball's Minor Leagues by David Lamb
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book describes what I’ve wanted to do for years, travel around the country in an RV, attending minor league baseball games. That’s just what the author does one summer, many years ago. You can feel the age of the book in a few ways. One, the author was a “kid journalist” with the Milwaukee Braves when younger, and from his time there he got to know many players and coaches. During this trip he meets with quite a few people he knew from the past, and those names are certainly “of the time”. The author also uses some labels for the disabled that we don’t look upon as kind nowadays. And while most of the places visited were smaller towns that came off as quite friendly, I’m not sure that high level of friendliness still exists in this country.

This has the prerequisite minor league baseball stories you expect. But Lamb really relished reconnecting with the older guys, the coaches and the baseball retirees. Those interviews tended to take away from the minor league focus, but they were interesting in their own right.

I most enjoy stories I have some kind of personal connection to. And sometimes that connection is tenuous, but I enjoy those too. Here, he does spend some time with the Peoria Chiefs, a Midwest League low A team in the area I grew up. He was there during the Pete Vonachen era, and there have been plenty of stories of that team owner and his stunts, a few of which were repeated here. Also, one of the “old timers” he visits on his journey was Chuck Tanner. Ends up Tanner was the first year coach of the Quad City Angels when I was born in a hospital across the Mississippi from their stadium in the early 60s.

Overall, I enjoyed the stories of the travel in the RV. Lamb covers the ups, like being able to invite players back to his rv for drinks, and downs, including expensive repairs on the road. The baseball stories were about the kinds of stories I expected, well told, but nothing I hadn’t read about before. The backstory of Lamb’s work with the Braves and meeting the players of that time during his trip was the best aspect of the book.


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