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The Final Season: Fathers, Sons, and One Last Season in a Classic American Ballpark
Maybe your dad took you to ball games at Fenway, Wrigley, or Ebbets. Maybe the two of you watched broadcasts from Yankee Stadium or Candlestick Park, or listened as Red Barber or Vin Scully called the plays on radio. Or maybe he coached your team or just played catch with you in the yard. Chances are good that if you're a baseball fan, your dad had something to do with it--and your thoughts of the sport evoke thoughts of him. If so, you will treasure The Final Season, a poignant true story about baseball and heroes, family and forgiveness, doubts and dreams, and a place that brings them all together.
Growing up in the 60s and 70s, Tom Stanton lived for his Detroit Tigers. When Tiger Stadium began its 88th and final season, he vowed to attend all 81 home games in order to explore his attachment to the place where four generations of his family have shared baseball. Join him as he encounters idols, conjures decades past, and discovers the mysteries of a park where Cobb and Ruth played. Come along and sit beside Al Kaline on the dugout bench, eat popcorn with Elmore Leonard, hear Alice Cooper's confessions, soak up the warmth of Ernie Harwell, see McGwire and Ripken up close, and meet Chicken Legs Rau, Bleacher Pete, Al the Usher, and a parade of fans who are anything but ordinary. By the autumn of his odyssey, Stanton comes to realize that his anguish isn't just about the loss of a beloved ballpark but about his dad's mortality, for at the heart of this story is the love between fathers and sons--a theme that resonates with baseball fans of all ages.
Growing up in the 60s and 70s, Tom Stanton lived for his Detroit Tigers. When Tiger Stadium began its 88th and final season, he vowed to attend all 81 home games in order to explore his attachment to the place where four generations of his family have shared baseball. Join him as he encounters idols, conjures decades past, and discovers the mysteries of a park where Cobb and Ruth played. Come along and sit beside Al Kaline on the dugout bench, eat popcorn with Elmore Leonard, hear Alice Cooper's confessions, soak up the warmth of Ernie Harwell, see McGwire and Ripken up close, and meet Chicken Legs Rau, Bleacher Pete, Al the Usher, and a parade of fans who are anything but ordinary. By the autumn of his odyssey, Stanton comes to realize that his anguish isn't just about the loss of a beloved ballpark but about his dad's mortality, for at the heart of this story is the love between fathers and sons--a theme that resonates with baseball fans of all ages.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
18 people are currently reading
277 people want to read
About the author
Tom Stanton
20 books38 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 - 30 of 47 reviews
July 16, 2025
An outstanding book! The author chronicles the final year of baseball and Tiger Stadium (1999). But the lousy baseball played that year by the home team is of a secondary nature, maybe even a tertiary nature. The main theme of the book is family, especially father/son dynamics. Along with much discussion of his father‘s relationships, with his many brothers, the authors uncles, and then his deceased grandfather, who died a few years before the author, Tom Stanton, was born. and of course, what goes along with this is a theme of memories, and the people that make up those memories, and how those memories attached to a place, and make the place special. And in this case, the special place is a very old ballpark that was seeing its last days.
Stanton committed to seeing all 81 home games, taking his sons or his dad or friends, or sometimes even going by himself. He sat around in various parts of the ballpark, visiting the scoreboard operator, legendary radio broadcaster Ernie Harwell, some of the ushers and Stadium attendants who have worked there for decades, walking around on the field before the game, having a conversation, one time with Al Kaline, and the Tigers dugout, and visiting in the press box as well,. He also chronicles his interactions with the faithful fans, people that he would see their game after game after game. People who had been coming there for decades, like him. People who had many memories there of great Tigers of the past, and terrible Tigers teams that you remembered because they were so bad. all of these people were special in one way or another. Stanton, even comments about occasionally encountering, visiting fans, who were making a pilgrimage to see one of baseball’s shrines before it closed down.
Stanton writes a lot about his paternal grandfather, Theodore Stankiewicz, who died in 1957. Stanton was born a few years later, so all he knows of his grandfather is what his dad and uncles, and family photographs, told him. As someone who also never knew my paternal grandfather, because he died long before I was born, what Stanton wrote on page 117 summarizes what I think about him and others who I’ve never met:
“As adults we come to realize that we’re all too complex, too filled with contradictions and changing motivations, to be painted accurately through a series of anecdotes that by their very nature distort and exaggerate us. Just as TV highlights of yesterday‘s ball game don’t capture its subtleties and nuances, a selection of moments can’t summarize a person‘s life. The highlights never show the mundane. They show the memorable. We forget the ordinary times that better represent us.
I would love to travel back for a day to glimpse him, to complete the picture and sharpen the image. I yearn for a clearer sense of what traits he passed on to my father, so I might understand the origin of those. My father passed on to me. But, alas, it’s not possible. There will always be questions unanswered.”
Stanton does a lot of reflecting, on his relationship with his father and his father‘s mortality. By this point in his life, his mother had already died due to brain tumors. His father‘s large family had somewhat split up, with many of the uncles going there separate ways. One of Stanton‘s goals was to reconnect his father with two of his brothers. In this endeavor, Stanton was partially successful as he was able to get his uncle Tom to a couple of games and reconnect with his father. But his uncle Herb was incommunicado, living - literally - on the other side of the world in Korea.
Stanton also talks about his own relationships with his three sons, although his son Zack seems to be his favorite. Although perhaps that’s not accurate to say: perhaps more it is just that Zack is the one that is most willing to go to games with him. Although even then, Stanton did say that one of his other sons liked baseball more. Stanton worries about if he will stay close to his sons as they grow up. Or will they push him away.
Stanton never gets maudlin, and he does not overdo it with the family dynamics. This is helped because he intersperses the family stuff with stories of so many of the other people and fans that he encounters throughout the course of the season. He also talks some about the neighborhood that his dad grew up in, and the neighborhood that the ballpark was situated in. There are a few hints here and there of his disappointment with the Tigers organization, and early on he even admits that the organization was reluctant to give him a press pass for the year, apparently thinking that he was going to write a damaging book about the organization giving up on it’s old stadium.
One dichotomy that really struck me here, is that so much of what Stanton writes about, is about times long passed. Ways of life that no longer are. Neighborhoods that no longer exist in the form that they once did. Yet reading this a quarter century later now, it makes me think about how times were back then, in the late 90s. This is before 9/11, before the intense political polarization that we now have, before climate change really started to rear its ugly head so noticeably, before the financial crisis, before the internet was ubiquitous, before social media, before so many things that have made the 21st century a real challenge so far.
Just small things, like people bringing their own food into the ballpark with them. You can’t do that now. One fan who he got to know over the course of the season always sat out in the centerfield bleachers, and didn’t worry about getting a ticket to the last game because he thought a friend had taken care of it for him. Well, that friend didn’t come through for him, but on the last day of the season, one of the ticket takers looked the other way and let the guy walk into the park. There’s no way that would happen now. No way.
And even though the baseball itself is really a minor character here (Stanton provides brief, pithy summaries of each game - more often than not another stinker by the Tigers), I can’t help but think about how different the game is now compared to what it was even then. The pitch count wasn’t a big deal, starters went deep into games still, bullpens weren’t micromanaged, analytics wasn’t all-encompassing in front offices, the National League still had pitchers batting, and interleague play was new. There was no pitch clock, and the generation of the retro ballparks all being named for corporate entiries was just coming around. The game is much different now than it was then, and - at least for this baseball fan - that’s not a good thing. At least I can still remember what it was like, and what attracted me to the game so long ago, and Stanton‘s book helps me to refresh that memory.
Grade: A
Stanton committed to seeing all 81 home games, taking his sons or his dad or friends, or sometimes even going by himself. He sat around in various parts of the ballpark, visiting the scoreboard operator, legendary radio broadcaster Ernie Harwell, some of the ushers and Stadium attendants who have worked there for decades, walking around on the field before the game, having a conversation, one time with Al Kaline, and the Tigers dugout, and visiting in the press box as well,. He also chronicles his interactions with the faithful fans, people that he would see their game after game after game. People who had been coming there for decades, like him. People who had many memories there of great Tigers of the past, and terrible Tigers teams that you remembered because they were so bad. all of these people were special in one way or another. Stanton, even comments about occasionally encountering, visiting fans, who were making a pilgrimage to see one of baseball’s shrines before it closed down.
Stanton writes a lot about his paternal grandfather, Theodore Stankiewicz, who died in 1957. Stanton was born a few years later, so all he knows of his grandfather is what his dad and uncles, and family photographs, told him. As someone who also never knew my paternal grandfather, because he died long before I was born, what Stanton wrote on page 117 summarizes what I think about him and others who I’ve never met:
“As adults we come to realize that we’re all too complex, too filled with contradictions and changing motivations, to be painted accurately through a series of anecdotes that by their very nature distort and exaggerate us. Just as TV highlights of yesterday‘s ball game don’t capture its subtleties and nuances, a selection of moments can’t summarize a person‘s life. The highlights never show the mundane. They show the memorable. We forget the ordinary times that better represent us.
I would love to travel back for a day to glimpse him, to complete the picture and sharpen the image. I yearn for a clearer sense of what traits he passed on to my father, so I might understand the origin of those. My father passed on to me. But, alas, it’s not possible. There will always be questions unanswered.”
Stanton does a lot of reflecting, on his relationship with his father and his father‘s mortality. By this point in his life, his mother had already died due to brain tumors. His father‘s large family had somewhat split up, with many of the uncles going there separate ways. One of Stanton‘s goals was to reconnect his father with two of his brothers. In this endeavor, Stanton was partially successful as he was able to get his uncle Tom to a couple of games and reconnect with his father. But his uncle Herb was incommunicado, living - literally - on the other side of the world in Korea.
Stanton also talks about his own relationships with his three sons, although his son Zack seems to be his favorite. Although perhaps that’s not accurate to say: perhaps more it is just that Zack is the one that is most willing to go to games with him. Although even then, Stanton did say that one of his other sons liked baseball more. Stanton worries about if he will stay close to his sons as they grow up. Or will they push him away.
Stanton never gets maudlin, and he does not overdo it with the family dynamics. This is helped because he intersperses the family stuff with stories of so many of the other people and fans that he encounters throughout the course of the season. He also talks some about the neighborhood that his dad grew up in, and the neighborhood that the ballpark was situated in. There are a few hints here and there of his disappointment with the Tigers organization, and early on he even admits that the organization was reluctant to give him a press pass for the year, apparently thinking that he was going to write a damaging book about the organization giving up on it’s old stadium.
One dichotomy that really struck me here, is that so much of what Stanton writes about, is about times long passed. Ways of life that no longer are. Neighborhoods that no longer exist in the form that they once did. Yet reading this a quarter century later now, it makes me think about how times were back then, in the late 90s. This is before 9/11, before the intense political polarization that we now have, before climate change really started to rear its ugly head so noticeably, before the financial crisis, before the internet was ubiquitous, before social media, before so many things that have made the 21st century a real challenge so far.
Just small things, like people bringing their own food into the ballpark with them. You can’t do that now. One fan who he got to know over the course of the season always sat out in the centerfield bleachers, and didn’t worry about getting a ticket to the last game because he thought a friend had taken care of it for him. Well, that friend didn’t come through for him, but on the last day of the season, one of the ticket takers looked the other way and let the guy walk into the park. There’s no way that would happen now. No way.
And even though the baseball itself is really a minor character here (Stanton provides brief, pithy summaries of each game - more often than not another stinker by the Tigers), I can’t help but think about how different the game is now compared to what it was even then. The pitch count wasn’t a big deal, starters went deep into games still, bullpens weren’t micromanaged, analytics wasn’t all-encompassing in front offices, the National League still had pitchers batting, and interleague play was new. There was no pitch clock, and the generation of the retro ballparks all being named for corporate entiries was just coming around. The game is much different now than it was then, and - at least for this baseball fan - that’s not a good thing. At least I can still remember what it was like, and what attracted me to the game so long ago, and Stanton‘s book helps me to refresh that memory.
Grade: A
July 18, 2025
If you are a Detroit Tigers fan and you grew up in the Detroit metropolitan area in the 60's and 70's than this book is for you. Growing up in that time period, baseball was the most popular sport by far. Youth soccer wasn't even heard of. The '68 and '84 Tigers were living gods. Valhalla was located on the corner of Michigan and Trumbull and was known as Tiger Stadium. Baseball was played at the corner for over 100 years. You just can't tear a stadium down and build a new one miles away without tearing the hearts out of Tigers fans that have worshipped the team for generations.
Author Tom Stanton's father grew up in Hamtramck. His Grandfather got off the boat from Europe and settled there and never played an inning of baseball in his life but still considered himself an aficionado. He was drawn to the Tigers the same way nearly everyone else was because here, baseball was the National pastime. Stanton's history could have been mine. In fact, I begin to wonder if his relatives ever crossed paths with any of mine. I'm sure that they did.
This is not just a story about the last season played in Tiger Stadium. In fact, the games are secondary, and the author never writes more than a sentence or two about any of the games. This is a story about a community and a region of the country where baseball is almost a religion. Stanton tells the story of the final season through his family and the many people that were impacted by the closure of the iconic park such as season ticket holders, vendors, and people that owned parking lots. The stadium was falling apart, and they needed a new one. Many of the seats were obstructed. I just wish they could've built right on that same spot. To me, this is the worst part. I'm sure that ghosts of the Tiger's past got together regularly to play pick-up baseball with Ty Cobb and Hal Newhouser. It's too bad it's gone but as former GM Bo Schembechler once said, "they don't play in the Colosseum anymore."
My recommendation is for all Tiger fans to read this book and then watch on YouTube, the final game. Skip to the bottom of the 8th inning and watch the entire closing ceremony. I loved watching the old Tigers from as far back as 1926 run onto the field in a full uniform and take their former position one last time. It was a real-life field of dreams. I was moved.
Author Tom Stanton's father grew up in Hamtramck. His Grandfather got off the boat from Europe and settled there and never played an inning of baseball in his life but still considered himself an aficionado. He was drawn to the Tigers the same way nearly everyone else was because here, baseball was the National pastime. Stanton's history could have been mine. In fact, I begin to wonder if his relatives ever crossed paths with any of mine. I'm sure that they did.
This is not just a story about the last season played in Tiger Stadium. In fact, the games are secondary, and the author never writes more than a sentence or two about any of the games. This is a story about a community and a region of the country where baseball is almost a religion. Stanton tells the story of the final season through his family and the many people that were impacted by the closure of the iconic park such as season ticket holders, vendors, and people that owned parking lots. The stadium was falling apart, and they needed a new one. Many of the seats were obstructed. I just wish they could've built right on that same spot. To me, this is the worst part. I'm sure that ghosts of the Tiger's past got together regularly to play pick-up baseball with Ty Cobb and Hal Newhouser. It's too bad it's gone but as former GM Bo Schembechler once said, "they don't play in the Colosseum anymore."
My recommendation is for all Tiger fans to read this book and then watch on YouTube, the final game. Skip to the bottom of the 8th inning and watch the entire closing ceremony. I loved watching the old Tigers from as far back as 1926 run onto the field in a full uniform and take their former position one last time. It was a real-life field of dreams. I was moved.
June 29, 2017
This is a book written about the final season played at Tiger Stadium, in Detroit, MI. The field closed in 1999 and Tom Stanton (a journalist) decided that he was going to attend all 81 home games with his father and his family.
Although my daughter and I live at least 100 miles from Detroit, we make it a point to get to a Tiger's game at least once a year. Therefore, we were also there that "final season." They played badly that year, but that wasn't really why we were there. We were there for the memories.
Memories that Tom Stanton reminded me of while reading this book. He was also overwhelmed with memories of the old players...Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, George Kell, Alan Tramall, Roger Clemens, ect...Memories of going to the game with his father and his uncles. Memories of all the good times his family had with baseball.
In 2000, the Tigers started playing at Comerica Park, just a couple of miles down the road. We now go there, and it is a nice enough place. But it will takes years for the memories to form, if ever.
Although my daughter and I live at least 100 miles from Detroit, we make it a point to get to a Tiger's game at least once a year. Therefore, we were also there that "final season." They played badly that year, but that wasn't really why we were there. We were there for the memories.
Memories that Tom Stanton reminded me of while reading this book. He was also overwhelmed with memories of the old players...Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, George Kell, Alan Tramall, Roger Clemens, ect...Memories of going to the game with his father and his uncles. Memories of all the good times his family had with baseball.
In 2000, the Tigers started playing at Comerica Park, just a couple of miles down the road. We now go there, and it is a nice enough place. But it will takes years for the memories to form, if ever.
June 15, 2024
Loved the journey of Gabe Kapler’s rookie season
January 8, 2013
Also available on my blog at http://dfculver.mlblogs.com
Stanton’s The Final Season took longer for me to complete than I anticipated, however this was due to my own busy schedule, more than anything on his part.
Stanton dances between memoir and documentary as he chronicles the Tiger’s last season at Tiger Stadium (Navin Field, Briggs Stadium) before moving over to Comerica Park.
Part of the power his tale is how Stanton delves into his family’s rich history with the Tiger’s organization. From his grandfather, to his father, himself, and finally on to his sons. Baseball, and in particular Tiger’s baseball, has been a part of all of their lives and a way for them to bond. Stanton reveals a reunion at the ballpark between his father and uncle who had not seen each other in almost three decades.
While at times I envied Stanton for being able to attend all 81 home games at Tiger Stadium, I also empathized with him at times when he missed out on family events due to conflicting schedules (I silently cheered when he left a game during the 4th inning to be there for a son’s birthday).
His family supported him in writing this tale, and I have to say that he did not disappoint them by pushing out a mediocre history of a final year. The love and devotion he gives to his family in these pages as well as to the Tiger’s team overall deserves to be honored.
Overall, this is one of the better baseball books I have read so far this year and it comes from someone who was outside of the inner-workings of baseball.
I’ll be looking to pick up some of Stanton’s other books in the near future, starting with The Road to Cooperstown, in which he takes a trip to Baseball’s Hall of Fame with his older brother and father.
Stanton’s The Final Season took longer for me to complete than I anticipated, however this was due to my own busy schedule, more than anything on his part.
Stanton dances between memoir and documentary as he chronicles the Tiger’s last season at Tiger Stadium (Navin Field, Briggs Stadium) before moving over to Comerica Park.
Part of the power his tale is how Stanton delves into his family’s rich history with the Tiger’s organization. From his grandfather, to his father, himself, and finally on to his sons. Baseball, and in particular Tiger’s baseball, has been a part of all of their lives and a way for them to bond. Stanton reveals a reunion at the ballpark between his father and uncle who had not seen each other in almost three decades.
While at times I envied Stanton for being able to attend all 81 home games at Tiger Stadium, I also empathized with him at times when he missed out on family events due to conflicting schedules (I silently cheered when he left a game during the 4th inning to be there for a son’s birthday).
His family supported him in writing this tale, and I have to say that he did not disappoint them by pushing out a mediocre history of a final year. The love and devotion he gives to his family in these pages as well as to the Tiger’s team overall deserves to be honored.
Overall, this is one of the better baseball books I have read so far this year and it comes from someone who was outside of the inner-workings of baseball.
I’ll be looking to pick up some of Stanton’s other books in the near future, starting with The Road to Cooperstown, in which he takes a trip to Baseball’s Hall of Fame with his older brother and father.
June 15, 2016
This is a good book about a Tigers' fan who attends every home game of the last season in which baseball was played at the old Tiger Stadium, intertwined with stories about his family. I would think it would have a fairly limited audience. I, of course, loved it. Because my dad taught me to love baseball and the Tigers. Because he taught me to keep score, which I still do at every game. Because I remember transistor radios. Because I loved Tiger Stadium. Because Al Kaline was my hero growing up. Because my friends and I thought the same as the author about alkaline batteries. Because I, too, was at the game honoring Kaline, and kept my poster for many years. Because even though I am 10 years older than the author, I remember every touch point about the Tigers that he listed. Because I own a customized Harwell jersey. Because my sons never felt about baseball like I do. Because I remember my last trip to the old park. Because I miss my dad.
May 29, 2009
If you grew up listening to Ernie Harwell on the transistor under your pillow at night, or watching Al Kaline chase down a ball to the corner then peg a throw to the plate on a fly, or believing that the corner of Michigan and Trumball was a baseball mecca, then this book will make you smile a thousand times and cry two or three. If you are not a Tiger fan, it's a sweet read about the meaning of family and connections (but probably only 3 stars). Either way it's worth the time.
February 1, 2016
An enjoyable read for any baseball fan who appreciates not only the history of the game, but has experienced the threads that sport can create within a family. The author uses the final season of the Detroit Tigers playing at Tiger Stadium to reflect on the stadium, the community it created, and how the team played a role in his family life for several generations. The final chapter is particularly touching.
June 12, 2016
A good book on the Detroit Tigers last year (1999) in Tiger Stadium. The author, Tom Stanton goes to all 81 games during the year, but the book is less on the play-by-play of those games and more about how each day conjures past memories of the ball park, mostly with his family. It's a quick read at around 240 pages with a lot of pictures. I read it in about two days. Tiger fans and baseball fans will enjoy. Book made me miss my Dad and I'm glad I was able to go the stadium once in 1993.
May 11, 2009
An interesting account of the final season at Tiger Stadium. The author attends all 81 home games. He uses the pages to detail people who work in and around the stadium, his family history and it's love of baseball. He includes the final score and his impressions of every game during the last season.
This book provided me with the inspiration to embark on a similar project of my own.
This book provided me with the inspiration to embark on a similar project of my own.
November 14, 2025
“It’s not the seventy- and eighty-year-old men who are wiping their eyes. It’s the generation that came after them. And we’re hurting not only for the loss of this beautiful place, but for the loss of our fathers and grandfathers— belatedly or prematurely. The closing of this park forces is to confront their mortality, and when we confront their mortality, we must confront our own. If the park is here, part of my dad will always be here, as well a part of me. A little bit of us dies when something like this, something so tight to our lives, disappears.“
1999 - the Detroit Tigers’ last season in their historic Tigers Stadium and Tom Stanton decides to attend every home game of this final season. The lacklustre baseball is merely a peripheral for Stanton as the season goes on through spring, the heights of summer, and autumn as baseball, Tigers’ baseball in which his family is steeped, becomes a conduit for him to reconnect with his father, his uncles, and his sons.
There is something unique about baseball, more so than any other sport, that ties it so closely to fathers and sons - playing catch in the summer twilight, the memories of first game, little league games, and the history of the game that has united families across the nation and throughout the years.
Tied so closely to family and to place, baseball is a deeply nostalgic and historic game. As Stanton watches more than eighty home games over the season, he reconnects with his estranged uncles and helps his father meet again a brother whom he had not seen for years. He returns to his old neighbourhood, now dilapidated and abandoned, but as fresh as his childhood ever was.
More than a game, more than a simple retelling of a losing season, Stanton’s beautiful and heartfelt narrative reminds fans of the game how they first came to love it so and from whom they learnt to love it.
1999 - the Detroit Tigers’ last season in their historic Tigers Stadium and Tom Stanton decides to attend every home game of this final season. The lacklustre baseball is merely a peripheral for Stanton as the season goes on through spring, the heights of summer, and autumn as baseball, Tigers’ baseball in which his family is steeped, becomes a conduit for him to reconnect with his father, his uncles, and his sons.
There is something unique about baseball, more so than any other sport, that ties it so closely to fathers and sons - playing catch in the summer twilight, the memories of first game, little league games, and the history of the game that has united families across the nation and throughout the years.
Tied so closely to family and to place, baseball is a deeply nostalgic and historic game. As Stanton watches more than eighty home games over the season, he reconnects with his estranged uncles and helps his father meet again a brother whom he had not seen for years. He returns to his old neighbourhood, now dilapidated and abandoned, but as fresh as his childhood ever was.
More than a game, more than a simple retelling of a losing season, Stanton’s beautiful and heartfelt narrative reminds fans of the game how they first came to love it so and from whom they learnt to love it.
March 28, 2018
Poignant recounting of attending every game at Tiger Stadium in its final season. But really about so much more: about relationships, loss, reuniting with family. Good read for non-sports people and sports fans. Stanton tells plenty of stories about famous Tigers, but also about non-famous ones, people who work at the stadium, and those who attend the games. But the real focus of the book, for me, was about family and relationships. Highly recommend for everyone!
Quotes:
"Most of the lessons we learn from our fathers come casually and naturally, not in grand speeches or insightful lectures or memorable demonstrations. We simply absorb their actions and behaviors and either embrace or reject them. From Dad I’ve learned that perseverance is more valuable than talent, that silence isn’t the same as weakness, and that family is always family."
"As adults we come to realize that we’re all too complex, too filled with contradictions and changing motivations, to be painted accurately through a series of anecdotes that by their very nature distort and exaggerate us. Just as TV highlights of yesterday’s ball game don’t capture its subtleties and nuances, a selection of moments can’t summarize a person’s life. The highlights never show the mundane, they show the memorable. We forget the ordinary times that better represent us."
"(on his father & uncle reconnecting after 27 years) As much as I enjoy their exchanges, I find what they don’t say just as telling. Where have you been all these years? Why didn’t you call? What happened? Did I do something to hurt you Why this long? …Would the answers really be worth the risk of insult or injury. …They’ve missed enough already. "
"Something sad happens to memories as our loved ones die off. Our pool of stories evaporates like salted water on a stove. We remember many, of course, and we add our own. But others are lost forever."
Quotes:
"Most of the lessons we learn from our fathers come casually and naturally, not in grand speeches or insightful lectures or memorable demonstrations. We simply absorb their actions and behaviors and either embrace or reject them. From Dad I’ve learned that perseverance is more valuable than talent, that silence isn’t the same as weakness, and that family is always family."
"As adults we come to realize that we’re all too complex, too filled with contradictions and changing motivations, to be painted accurately through a series of anecdotes that by their very nature distort and exaggerate us. Just as TV highlights of yesterday’s ball game don’t capture its subtleties and nuances, a selection of moments can’t summarize a person’s life. The highlights never show the mundane, they show the memorable. We forget the ordinary times that better represent us."
"(on his father & uncle reconnecting after 27 years) As much as I enjoy their exchanges, I find what they don’t say just as telling. Where have you been all these years? Why didn’t you call? What happened? Did I do something to hurt you Why this long? …Would the answers really be worth the risk of insult or injury. …They’ve missed enough already. "
"Something sad happens to memories as our loved ones die off. Our pool of stories evaporates like salted water on a stove. We remember many, of course, and we add our own. But others are lost forever."
October 7, 2019
I picked this book up on a lam at a used bookstore. A book about the last season of Tiger Stadium could be very interesting, no?
And it was. Stanton does a good job intertwining his family, Tiger legends, and the ups/downs (mostly downs) of recent Detroit history.
I often say that nostalgia is the 'other' N word... in that it typically represents unfulfilled potential. The career that didn't work out, the adventure that didn't pan out, the relationship that went awry... you get the idea. But it could also apply to the decline of cultural institutions. In the case of Tiger Stadium, the case for it remaining was over-abundantly stated - it provided a lifeline for those who didn't have many options, it served as a reminder of its fans' childhoods, it had quirky characteristics not replicated in more 'modern' efforts, etc.
However, there is a reason why nostalgia is swept aside for such considerations as modernism - mostly because tastes/people's sizes have been known to change, often drastically, over time. What worked in 1912 very well might not apply in the 21st century. In the best of circumstances, severe renovations could take place to make the existing structure more habitable (hint Oakland...), but unless there's enough firepower behind this idea, it'll lose to the big money interests (in this case Comerica), inevitably leading to community whiners waxing poetic about what they once had.
And it was. Stanton does a good job intertwining his family, Tiger legends, and the ups/downs (mostly downs) of recent Detroit history.
I often say that nostalgia is the 'other' N word... in that it typically represents unfulfilled potential. The career that didn't work out, the adventure that didn't pan out, the relationship that went awry... you get the idea. But it could also apply to the decline of cultural institutions. In the case of Tiger Stadium, the case for it remaining was over-abundantly stated - it provided a lifeline for those who didn't have many options, it served as a reminder of its fans' childhoods, it had quirky characteristics not replicated in more 'modern' efforts, etc.
However, there is a reason why nostalgia is swept aside for such considerations as modernism - mostly because tastes/people's sizes have been known to change, often drastically, over time. What worked in 1912 very well might not apply in the 21st century. In the best of circumstances, severe renovations could take place to make the existing structure more habitable (hint Oakland...), but unless there's enough firepower behind this idea, it'll lose to the big money interests (in this case Comerica), inevitably leading to community whiners waxing poetic about what they once had.
January 17, 2009
Tom Stanton's THE FINAL SEASON is a finely written and evocative account of the author's experience in attending all 81 home games of the Detroit Tigers' 1999 baseball season--the final year that the team played in Tiger Stadium. The book is about much more than baseball. Stanton attends most of the games with his father, a lifelong Tigers' fan, and the book reveals how rooting for a particular team--especially a team that is connected to the traditions and history of a neighborhood and city--is an act of devotion that creates relationships like those that exist in families. The book is filled with wonderful anecdotes about players, games, fans, and Detroit, but Stanton's main focus is on family traditions--and how one deals with the inevitable losses that everyone faces during a lifetime. Stanton's style is clean and free of excessive hyperbole or philosophy. The book should appeal to anyone who likes baseball and appreciates the way the game bonds people together.
March 22, 2016
This is a can't-miss memoir for Tigers' fans who have fond memories of Tiger Stadium, as well as anyone whose team and civic loyalty was passed down through the DNA of multiple generations. That spirit blossomed later for me than for many, but its roots are the same. Of course, one's passion for this memoir will depend on one's love of the Tigers and/or Detroit, but Stanton builds his account of Tiger Stadium's final season through vignettes of people from all walks of life whose paths crossed at The Corner in 1999. The first Tigers game I took my son to see (and the baseball game from which come my most treasured ballpark photos of him) unfolds in these pages. There's no specific mention of a pudgy little toddler in a red shirt and beige baseball cap atop his father's shoulders to watch the Tigers take on the Mariners while Mark Fidrych signs autographs on the concourse, but I could see us in the background, enraptured by the game.
December 26, 2020
A pleasurable read for me as someone who grew up a huge Tigers fan and used to consider Tiger Stadium a cathedral. I went to plenty of games during that final season in 1999 myself including the last; I enjoyed reliving it through Tom Stanton’s diary.
It isn’t really a diary of the Tigers’ home season, it’s more a journey that Tom took that entwined family and baseball and the city of Detroit. I enjoy learning the past of my hometown and Stanton has a firm grip on it as seen in this book as well as “Terror in the City of Champions”.
This book definitely has a niche following and if you fall into that niche, as I do, you’ll love it.
It isn’t really a diary of the Tigers’ home season, it’s more a journey that Tom took that entwined family and baseball and the city of Detroit. I enjoy learning the past of my hometown and Stanton has a firm grip on it as seen in this book as well as “Terror in the City of Champions”.
This book definitely has a niche following and if you fall into that niche, as I do, you’ll love it.
February 8, 2023
Journalist/fan’s chronology of the Detroit Tigers’ last season in venerable Tiger Stadium in 1999. The season, a terrible one for the Tigers, is not the centerpiece here. Remembering games attended with family members and friends, remembering family members who remembered games, and remembering family in general — in the midst of baseball — are what the author concentrates on. Detroit baseball fans will best relate to the book, but any family in which Major League Baseball helps connect the strands may find common ground.
October 24, 2019
Stanton, who is from Detroit, attends all 81 home games of the Tigers' final season at Tigers Stadium. The book ultimately has little to do with baseball and more to do with family, nostalgia, and the ties that bind us all together in life. It's a pleasant book-- fairly short, but long enough. Honestly, I found myself wishing for a little MORE baseball in here. But as a memoir, it's a pleasant enough read.
March 27, 2012
A must read for any Tigers fan born before 1990 (i.e. anyone who remembers attending a game at Tiger Stadium with their dad). My dad and I both read this when we were in Lakeland, FL for Tigers spring training and couldn't put it down.
July 11, 2014
Was a really good read. Moving and touching about the final season at Tiger stadium. A gem of a book that I will reread every beginning of baseball season! If you are A Tiger's fan - read this book!
Read
December 29, 2007My first book.
August 23, 2010
A must read for all Tiger fans
August 28, 2010
Nice memoir of a year spent going to every Tigers home game.
February 27, 2013
Every tiger Fan should read this book.
March 28, 2014
Sentimental without being mawkish, and very well-written. Must-read for anyone with a fondness for old sports stadia.
June 12, 2023
A trip down memory lane. A good book about baseball and life. Worth the read.
May 20, 2024
I lost my dad two years ago and I'm still struggling to put into words, not just what it feels like to lose your father, but what it feels like to look back on memories of him after he's gone. This book helped with a lot of that. My father loved baseball, though he was a Cardinal's fan. I, on the other hand, support the Tigers. Neither of us ever attended a major league game, but he would tell me all about what Molina did the night before, what Pujols would have done if he were still at Busch Stadium, how far McGwire could move the ball if the pitch was right. I heard my dad's voice throughout this book and I want to thank the author for that. It merged my love and grief for my father, with my love of the Tigers. I wish he was still here. I wish father's didn't have to die. Maybe just as impossible of a wish; I wish the Tigers would win the pennant again. Read this book if you love baseball. Read this book if you miss the glory days of childhood. Read this book if you love your father, past or present. Either way, just read this book.
November 6, 2023
I was eight years old when Tiger Stadium closed, but I remember it, how could I not? My most vivid early memory of my life is my first trip to The Corner with my dad and my brother.
Thinking about it now makes me emotional. I think stepping out and seeing the field for the first time was the first time I realized my existence. I was so small and the field so big, and so much more important. We had seats in left field in the first or second row of upper deck. great seats if you ask me.
I remember Tony Clark coming up to plate, and getting the biggest cheer out of all the players from the scarce crowd. I turned to my dad and asked him why he got the loudest cheers, he said "He hit a walk off last night". Well that's all it took for TC to become my hero and favorite player.
This book brought back a flood of memories of me, my brother and my dad at the ballpark. At both the too few games at Tiger Stadium and the many games at Comerica Park. It is a must read for any Tiger fan. I think I'm gonna buy this book for my dad for Christmas. I'm glad this book exists.
Thinking about it now makes me emotional. I think stepping out and seeing the field for the first time was the first time I realized my existence. I was so small and the field so big, and so much more important. We had seats in left field in the first or second row of upper deck. great seats if you ask me.
I remember Tony Clark coming up to plate, and getting the biggest cheer out of all the players from the scarce crowd. I turned to my dad and asked him why he got the loudest cheers, he said "He hit a walk off last night". Well that's all it took for TC to become my hero and favorite player.
This book brought back a flood of memories of me, my brother and my dad at the ballpark. At both the too few games at Tiger Stadium and the many games at Comerica Park. It is a must read for any Tiger fan. I think I'm gonna buy this book for my dad for Christmas. I'm glad this book exists.
June 11, 2023
The book was a walk down memory lane for me. At the age of 77 I actually lived this book. I can still see Al Kaline receiving a Silver Bat in a purple bag. He was true totality. I knew he was a class when he refused a salary of $100,000.00 because he didn’t feel he deserved it.
I loved the memories in the book of Cash, Horton, Lolich, Tram and the amazing Lou Whitaker (Lou belongs in the hall of fame and wasn’t voted in, horrible travesty!!).
The book was a very quick read and for us old folks it provided long lost memories!
I loved the memories in the book of Cash, Horton, Lolich, Tram and the amazing Lou Whitaker (Lou belongs in the hall of fame and wasn’t voted in, horrible travesty!!).
The book was a very quick read and for us old folks it provided long lost memories!
March 25, 2020
Absolutely stellar. What an amazing experience this must have been. This book is rich in themes of family, fatherhood, and (obviously) baseball. It will make you want to play catch with someone in your family or go to a game.
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