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Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between
A story about baseball, family, the American Dream, and the fight to turn Los Angeles into a big league city.
Dodger Stadium is an American icon. But the story of how it came to be goes far beyond baseball. The hills that cradle the stadium were once home to three vibrant Mexican American communities. In the early 1950s, those communities were condemned to make way for a utopian public housing project. Then, in a remarkable turn, public housing in the city was defeated amidst a Red Scare conspiracy.
Instead of getting their homes back, the remaining residents saw the city sell their land to Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Now LA would be getting a different sort of utopian fantasy -- a glittering, ultra-modern stadium.
But before Dodger Stadium could be built, the city would have to face down the neighborhood's families -- including one, the Aréchigas, who refused to yield their home. The ensuing confrontation captivated the nation - and the divisive outcome still echoes through Los Angeles today.
Dodger Stadium is an American icon. But the story of how it came to be goes far beyond baseball. The hills that cradle the stadium were once home to three vibrant Mexican American communities. In the early 1950s, those communities were condemned to make way for a utopian public housing project. Then, in a remarkable turn, public housing in the city was defeated amidst a Red Scare conspiracy.
Instead of getting their homes back, the remaining residents saw the city sell their land to Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Now LA would be getting a different sort of utopian fantasy -- a glittering, ultra-modern stadium.
But before Dodger Stadium could be built, the city would have to face down the neighborhood's families -- including one, the Aréchigas, who refused to yield their home. The ensuing confrontation captivated the nation - and the divisive outcome still echoes through Los Angeles today.
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First published March 24, 2020
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About the author
Eric Nusbaum
4 books48 followersEric Nusbaum is a writer and former editor at VICE. His work has appeared in Sports Illustrated, ESPN the Magazine, The Daily Beast, Deadspin, and the Best American Sports Writing anthology. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he has also lived and worked in Mexico City, New York, and Seattle. He now lives in Tacoma, Washington with his family.
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May 11, 2020
Over the last two months we have been inundated with images about being safe at home. In the last two weeks, commercials have focused on mother’s being the mainstay of the home in anticipation of Mother’s Day. To me, it is just another day, but I found myself missing baseball more than ever. The pink batting gloves, cleats, and bats worn by Major League Baseball players to pay homage to their mothers is a touching tribute, but it is also the first marker of a long season in which teams can assess where they are after six weeks. As pink is not a favorite color of mine, I can do without it, but as the calendar turns toward summer I am really missing baseball. My reading during this time has become baseball heavy as a coping mechanism, and this latest book focuses on the people whose lives and homes were altered when the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles and, sadly, not about being safe at home.
Dodger Stadium had been pegged to host the 2020 all star game on the occasion of its sixty year anniversary. As one who lists Jackie Robinson as one of her top American heroes of the 20th century, it is hard to believe that the Dodgers have called Los Angeles home for over sixty years. Following their long sought after World Series victory in 1955, Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley assessed the state of Ebbets Field and knew that the team needed to upgrade its home park if it wanted to remain a force in the national league. Society was becoming more suburban and a ballpark in a busy Brooklyn neighborhood appeared outdated. O’Malley designed a modern stadium within the Brooklyn borough only to be foiled by equally powerful New York urban planner Robert Moses. Moses suggested that the Dodgers move to a state of the art new stadium in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens. O’Malley balked and, within two years, he uprooted the Dodgers to sunny California, and for good measure, brought the rival Giants to the west coast with him. For those looking to read a comprehensive book about the Dodgers, and Giants, move west, however, they will be disappointed. The team’s history is glossed over in the final section of the book as the author discusses it when he focuses on the construction of Dodger Stadium, a monument to the O’Malley family. As the Dodgers have been chronicled at length, the author looked to focus on the history surrounding the team from a new angle.
While the Dodgers do play a role in this book, it is primarily about urban politics of Los Angeles in the first half of the 20th century. The author Eric Nusbaum was privileged to hear former housing advocate Frank Wilkinson speak to his high school history class in 2003. Wilkinson moved with his family to Los Angeles from Arizona as a young boy in search of better health care for his mother, so, like the Dodgers, he was also a transplant. His father was a respected doctor who was also ascribed to the temperance movement and a social conservative. Wilkinson grew up hearing his father denounce alcohol and credit his life to religion. After graduating from UCLA, Wilkinson and a friend embarked for a traditional travel through Europe. On the eve of World War II, he witnessed communism in Russia and liked what he saw, forsaking religion and joining the party on his return to Los Angeles. A charismatic person, Wilkinson devoted his life to public housing, keeping his party membership quiet for as long as he could, making it his life’s mission to better the way of life for the minority people living in supposedly dilapidated shacks in the hills above Los Angeles.
Prior to the construction of freeways and Dodger Stadium, the hills beyond Los Angeles were not connected to the glitzy part of the city. The communities of Palo Verde, La Loma, and Bishop were home to a thriving Mexican community, comprised primarily of immigrants. The hill communities were one large, extended family, and even through the depression years the people were hardly for want. Nusbaum focuses on Manuel and Abrana Arechiga of Palo Verde, who had called 1771 Malvina Avenue home since the 1920s. Although their home would have been viewed as a shanty by law makers, the Arechiga family had been running their home for nearly forty years by the time the Dodgers wanted to buy their land for construction of their stadium. Stealing Home is primarily about the Arechiga’s fight with the government to maintain ownership of their land so that it would be in the family for generations to come. They believed that as self made immigrants they had just as much stake in the land as politicians who attempted to seize their home through imminent domain. With courtroom fights on the horizon, the housing commission’s representative who attempted to talk the Arechigas into signing over their land was none other than Frank Wilkinson. In this nexus of race, party politics, and a strong woman in Abrana Arechiga, the struggle for land ownership and the future of Los Angeles came to a head. This story was more about the denunciation of Hispanic immigrants than it was about the new arrival Dodgers, who did in fact steal land from many first and second generation home owners to build their stadium. Race and the O’Malley’s deep coffers inevitable transferred the ownership of land in Palo Verde, La Loma, and Bishop to the Dodgers.
At times it felt as though Nusbaum wanted to do too much. He mentioned everyone from Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson to the Zoot Suit Riots of the 1940s and the Bracero Program, and did not focus on any of these people or events for more than a few pages. Even Sandy Koufax, the Dodgers first star in Los Angeles, is barely mentioned here, as the author can not decide who to make his main focus. Knowing little about Los Angeles politics of the 1950s, I found these sections to be the most compelling, until Nusbaum switched gears and focused on the Dodgers. While we are staying safe at home, I chose to read about an incident where politicians stole home from a group of home owners in order to start construction on a baseball stadium. It will not be the first or last time in history that this has happened. With this book jumping all over the place, I have a need to read about both the Los Angeles Dodgers, of which I have read a lot, and Hispanic culture in Los Angeles, of which I have read little. I feel a book just focusing on one, not both, of these issues would be much more compelling and comprehensive of a read.
3. 5 stars
Dodger Stadium had been pegged to host the 2020 all star game on the occasion of its sixty year anniversary. As one who lists Jackie Robinson as one of her top American heroes of the 20th century, it is hard to believe that the Dodgers have called Los Angeles home for over sixty years. Following their long sought after World Series victory in 1955, Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley assessed the state of Ebbets Field and knew that the team needed to upgrade its home park if it wanted to remain a force in the national league. Society was becoming more suburban and a ballpark in a busy Brooklyn neighborhood appeared outdated. O’Malley designed a modern stadium within the Brooklyn borough only to be foiled by equally powerful New York urban planner Robert Moses. Moses suggested that the Dodgers move to a state of the art new stadium in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens. O’Malley balked and, within two years, he uprooted the Dodgers to sunny California, and for good measure, brought the rival Giants to the west coast with him. For those looking to read a comprehensive book about the Dodgers, and Giants, move west, however, they will be disappointed. The team’s history is glossed over in the final section of the book as the author discusses it when he focuses on the construction of Dodger Stadium, a monument to the O’Malley family. As the Dodgers have been chronicled at length, the author looked to focus on the history surrounding the team from a new angle.
While the Dodgers do play a role in this book, it is primarily about urban politics of Los Angeles in the first half of the 20th century. The author Eric Nusbaum was privileged to hear former housing advocate Frank Wilkinson speak to his high school history class in 2003. Wilkinson moved with his family to Los Angeles from Arizona as a young boy in search of better health care for his mother, so, like the Dodgers, he was also a transplant. His father was a respected doctor who was also ascribed to the temperance movement and a social conservative. Wilkinson grew up hearing his father denounce alcohol and credit his life to religion. After graduating from UCLA, Wilkinson and a friend embarked for a traditional travel through Europe. On the eve of World War II, he witnessed communism in Russia and liked what he saw, forsaking religion and joining the party on his return to Los Angeles. A charismatic person, Wilkinson devoted his life to public housing, keeping his party membership quiet for as long as he could, making it his life’s mission to better the way of life for the minority people living in supposedly dilapidated shacks in the hills above Los Angeles.
Prior to the construction of freeways and Dodger Stadium, the hills beyond Los Angeles were not connected to the glitzy part of the city. The communities of Palo Verde, La Loma, and Bishop were home to a thriving Mexican community, comprised primarily of immigrants. The hill communities were one large, extended family, and even through the depression years the people were hardly for want. Nusbaum focuses on Manuel and Abrana Arechiga of Palo Verde, who had called 1771 Malvina Avenue home since the 1920s. Although their home would have been viewed as a shanty by law makers, the Arechiga family had been running their home for nearly forty years by the time the Dodgers wanted to buy their land for construction of their stadium. Stealing Home is primarily about the Arechiga’s fight with the government to maintain ownership of their land so that it would be in the family for generations to come. They believed that as self made immigrants they had just as much stake in the land as politicians who attempted to seize their home through imminent domain. With courtroom fights on the horizon, the housing commission’s representative who attempted to talk the Arechigas into signing over their land was none other than Frank Wilkinson. In this nexus of race, party politics, and a strong woman in Abrana Arechiga, the struggle for land ownership and the future of Los Angeles came to a head. This story was more about the denunciation of Hispanic immigrants than it was about the new arrival Dodgers, who did in fact steal land from many first and second generation home owners to build their stadium. Race and the O’Malley’s deep coffers inevitable transferred the ownership of land in Palo Verde, La Loma, and Bishop to the Dodgers.
At times it felt as though Nusbaum wanted to do too much. He mentioned everyone from Jackie Robinson and Paul Robeson to the Zoot Suit Riots of the 1940s and the Bracero Program, and did not focus on any of these people or events for more than a few pages. Even Sandy Koufax, the Dodgers first star in Los Angeles, is barely mentioned here, as the author can not decide who to make his main focus. Knowing little about Los Angeles politics of the 1950s, I found these sections to be the most compelling, until Nusbaum switched gears and focused on the Dodgers. While we are staying safe at home, I chose to read about an incident where politicians stole home from a group of home owners in order to start construction on a baseball stadium. It will not be the first or last time in history that this has happened. With this book jumping all over the place, I have a need to read about both the Los Angeles Dodgers, of which I have read a lot, and Hispanic culture in Los Angeles, of which I have read little. I feel a book just focusing on one, not both, of these issues would be much more compelling and comprehensive of a read.
3. 5 stars
October 5, 2021
"He may not have realized it at first, but when [Dodgers owner Walter] O'Malley acquired the site [of Chavez Ravine], he was also acquiring the previous decade of dirty politics and legal warfare and the after-effects of an essential, almost primordial fight over what it meant to be a city." -- page 279
Not quite the 'grand slam' of a book that I was hoping for, I think my distinct lack of enthusiasm for Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between was because of the lack of Dodgers-related segments. (Said baseball club only really comes into play starting at just after the 200-page mark . . . and this is a 300-page book. Fans of 60's superstars like Koufax, Drysdale, et al. need to look elsewhere.) However, the detailed chapters on the metropolis' big changes and development during the very eventful 20th century - much like John Buntin's excellent L.A. Noir, which I read earlier this year - were indeed interesting. But one major character who gets a lot of (or is too much?) print time, the dedicated and avowed communist / public housing activist, felt oddly tangential to the main thrust of the storyline - he sounds like the kind of insufferable person you'd dread sitting next to on a long flight, and his inclusion seems to stem mostly from inspiring (when he was a guest speaker at the author's high school two decades ago) the idea for this book. Other reviewers commented that this was "overinflated" or "not what I was expecting," and I happen to agree with those opinions. Well, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes it rains.
Not quite the 'grand slam' of a book that I was hoping for, I think my distinct lack of enthusiasm for Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between was because of the lack of Dodgers-related segments. (Said baseball club only really comes into play starting at just after the 200-page mark . . . and this is a 300-page book. Fans of 60's superstars like Koufax, Drysdale, et al. need to look elsewhere.) However, the detailed chapters on the metropolis' big changes and development during the very eventful 20th century - much like John Buntin's excellent L.A. Noir, which I read earlier this year - were indeed interesting. But one major character who gets a lot of (or is too much?) print time, the dedicated and avowed communist / public housing activist, felt oddly tangential to the main thrust of the storyline - he sounds like the kind of insufferable person you'd dread sitting next to on a long flight, and his inclusion seems to stem mostly from inspiring (when he was a guest speaker at the author's high school two decades ago) the idea for this book. Other reviewers commented that this was "overinflated" or "not what I was expecting," and I happen to agree with those opinions. Well, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes it rains.
April 28, 2020
I liked this book a lot. It is very well written. As one of Frank Wilkinson's children, I can attest to the fact that the author stuck to the facts. It is a heartbreaking story of the destruction of a beautiful community.
March 24, 2020
Thank you Perseus Books and NetGalley for this free ARC in return for my honest review. I spent 3 years in Los Angeles in the mid-70's and fell in love with the area. And in the past year I have been fortunate to have read 3 different books about Los Angeles and its Urban Development, athletics and the Dodgers. This book specifically deals with those people who lived in what is now called Chavez Ravine, prior to the baseball stadium these were 3 different communities (Palo Verde, La Loma & Bishop) and most of the focus is upon Palo Verde and the Abrana Arechiga family. The family moved from Mexico to escape the revolution and ended in Arizona and from there made their way to Los Angeles to settle in these hills about 1 mile from downtown. So near, yet so far away, basically forgotten by Los Angeles until a dreamer, Frank Wilkinson, a wanderer and dreamer becomes involved in Urban planning, as well as the Communist Party. Was Frank a Communist? I guess by those old definitions he was, he certainly believed in affordable housing projects and once he got himself into a position of some importance he is the force behind the initial attempts to have Palo Verde, et al, be declared a slum and begin condemnation proceedings to have the land purchased and used for these Housing Projects. Oh gee, we want affordable housing, let's put it where the Mexicans live and displace them.
We trace the history of Wilkinson, the Arechiga family and the Dodgers move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in this well researched book. The Dodgers wanted to move west and LA was finally able to offer them this land in Palo Verde because most families had left and accepted the condemnation awards. But the Affordable Housing fell through and eventually the Dodgers get this land to build Dodger Stadium which was state of the art in 1962 and remains so through today.
We follow the hopes, dreams, tragedies and fiascos that all these interests are involved in and along the way we can try and figure out who are the good guys, the bad guys, and wonder if there are either. This is a story that most Angelinos know nothing about, and few outside of LA are aware of what happened and how it came to pass that the Dodgers moved to LA and were able to wrest this land from the city and from the families that had lived there for over 40 years. A very well written book that gives us a lot of the inside and unknown stories about Chavez Ravine. It is a fascinating book that will appeal to broad range of readers who will read this book from differing points of view.
We trace the history of Wilkinson, the Arechiga family and the Dodgers move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in this well researched book. The Dodgers wanted to move west and LA was finally able to offer them this land in Palo Verde because most families had left and accepted the condemnation awards. But the Affordable Housing fell through and eventually the Dodgers get this land to build Dodger Stadium which was state of the art in 1962 and remains so through today.
We follow the hopes, dreams, tragedies and fiascos that all these interests are involved in and along the way we can try and figure out who are the good guys, the bad guys, and wonder if there are either. This is a story that most Angelinos know nothing about, and few outside of LA are aware of what happened and how it came to pass that the Dodgers moved to LA and were able to wrest this land from the city and from the families that had lived there for over 40 years. A very well written book that gives us a lot of the inside and unknown stories about Chavez Ravine. It is a fascinating book that will appeal to broad range of readers who will read this book from differing points of view.
December 6, 2019
Dodger Stadium is considered to be one of the crowing jewels among ballparks in the United States, nestled in a prime location with beautiful scenery overlooking the park that fans in certain sections can admire during a lull in the action. How the stadium came to fruition, however, is a very controversial journey that is still being talked about today, almost 60 years after its opening. This excellent book by Eric Nussbaum describes that journey, which took several twists and turns.
While there isn't a lot about the game of baseball or the Dodgers in the book, at least compared to the political aspects of the book, a baseball fan will still enjoy Nussbaum's writing about the team, some of its players in the early days in Los Angeles and also of Walter O'Malley, the owner who moved the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.
While these passages make for interesting reading, they are not the heart and soul of this book. The true heroes of this book are not any baseball players but the Archeiga family, who refused to leave their home in Chavez Ravine, the area where the ball park was eventually built. When their home, along with all others in the predominantly Mexican neighborhood, was being taken by the government to make way for public housing, the Archiegas refused to accept the money that was being offered after appraisal by the government.
What followed was a great political story that would make a great novel – except that it was all true. This was where Nussbaum was at his best. Two personal stories are good examples of this. Whether he was writing about a man whose goal was to bring public housing to Los Angeles, only to be shamed by the crusade of an anti-Communism committee or he was telling the story of the local city councilwoman who was a key figure in getting O'Malley to move the Dodgers to the west coast, Nussbaum writes about the story in a manner that will keep the reader engaged, entertained and on an emotional roller coaster. Most of the time, it will be anger – anger at the politicians, at O'Malley, at practically anybody whose last name is not Archiega.
No matter what type of non-fiction a reader enjoys, this is one book that should be picked up and read cover to cover. It will explain why despite the beautiful view one gets inside and outside Dodger Stadium, there is a very poignant story underneath.
I wish to thank Perseus Books Public Affairs for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
While there isn't a lot about the game of baseball or the Dodgers in the book, at least compared to the political aspects of the book, a baseball fan will still enjoy Nussbaum's writing about the team, some of its players in the early days in Los Angeles and also of Walter O'Malley, the owner who moved the team from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.
While these passages make for interesting reading, they are not the heart and soul of this book. The true heroes of this book are not any baseball players but the Archeiga family, who refused to leave their home in Chavez Ravine, the area where the ball park was eventually built. When their home, along with all others in the predominantly Mexican neighborhood, was being taken by the government to make way for public housing, the Archiegas refused to accept the money that was being offered after appraisal by the government.
What followed was a great political story that would make a great novel – except that it was all true. This was where Nussbaum was at his best. Two personal stories are good examples of this. Whether he was writing about a man whose goal was to bring public housing to Los Angeles, only to be shamed by the crusade of an anti-Communism committee or he was telling the story of the local city councilwoman who was a key figure in getting O'Malley to move the Dodgers to the west coast, Nussbaum writes about the story in a manner that will keep the reader engaged, entertained and on an emotional roller coaster. Most of the time, it will be anger – anger at the politicians, at O'Malley, at practically anybody whose last name is not Archiega.
No matter what type of non-fiction a reader enjoys, this is one book that should be picked up and read cover to cover. It will explain why despite the beautiful view one gets inside and outside Dodger Stadium, there is a very poignant story underneath.
I wish to thank Perseus Books Public Affairs for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
March 2, 2024
I did not enjoy this book for two reasons. First, the author goes off on many, many tangents. For instance, he spends quite a bit of time talking about Jackie Robinson. Robinson's story is inspirational and well worth telling . . . but, not in this book; it has absolutely nothing to do with how the land on which Dodger Stadium sits came to be used for that purpose. Second, Nusbaum's account is extremely one-sided. There is hardly a page where he does not hammer you with his view of events. I actually agree with many of his opinions, but I like to be presented with an objective account and form my own conclusions. The story of Chavez Ravine and how it eventually came to be used for Dodger Stadium is extremely interesting. I just wish I had found a better history.
March 24, 2020
Thank you Perseus Books and NetGalley for this free ARC in return for my honest review. I spent 3 years in Los Angeles in the mid-70's and fell in love with the area. And in the past year I have been fortunate to have read 3 different books about Los Angeles and its Urban Development, athletics and the Dodgers. This book specifically deals with those people who lived in what is now called Chavez Ravine, prior to the baseball stadium these were 3 different communities (Palo Verde, La Loma & Bishop) and most of the focus is upon Palo Verde and the Abrana Arechiga family. The family moved from Mexico to escape the revolution and ended in Arizona and from there made their way to Los Angeles to settle in these hills about 1 mile from downtown. So near, yet so far away, basically forgotten by Los Angeles until a dreamer, Frank Wilkinson, a wanderer and dreamer becomes involved in Urban planning, as well as the Communist Party. Was Frank a Communist? I guess by those old definitions he was, he certainly believed in affordable housing projects and once he got himself into a position of some importance he is the force behind the initial attempts to have Palo Verde, et al, be declared a slum and begin condemnation proceedings to have the land purchased and used for these Housing Projects. Oh gee, we want affordable housing, let's put it where the Mexicans live and displace them.
We trace the history of Wilkinson, the Arechiga family and the Dodgers move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in this well researched book. The Dodgers wanted to move west and LA was finally able to offer them this land in Palo Verde because most families had left and accepted the condemnation awards. But the Affordable Housing fell through and eventually the Dodgers get this land to build Dodger Stadium which was state of the art in 1962 and remains so through today.
We follow the hopes, dreams, tragedies and fiascos that all these interests are involved in and along the way we can try and figure out who are the good guys, the bad guys, and wonder if there are either. This is a story that most Angelinos know nothing about, and few outside of LA are aware of what happened and how it came to pass that the Dodgers moved to LA and were able to wrest this land from the city and from the families that had lived there for over 40 years. A very well written book that gives us a lot of the inside and unknown stories about Chavez Ravine. It is a fascinating book that will appeal to broad range of readers who will read this book from differing points of view.
We trace the history of Wilkinson, the Arechiga family and the Dodgers move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in this well researched book. The Dodgers wanted to move west and LA was finally able to offer them this land in Palo Verde because most families had left and accepted the condemnation awards. But the Affordable Housing fell through and eventually the Dodgers get this land to build Dodger Stadium which was state of the art in 1962 and remains so through today.
We follow the hopes, dreams, tragedies and fiascos that all these interests are involved in and along the way we can try and figure out who are the good guys, the bad guys, and wonder if there are either. This is a story that most Angelinos know nothing about, and few outside of LA are aware of what happened and how it came to pass that the Dodgers moved to LA and were able to wrest this land from the city and from the families that had lived there for over 40 years. A very well written book that gives us a lot of the inside and unknown stories about Chavez Ravine. It is a fascinating book that will appeal to broad range of readers who will read this book from differing points of view.
June 7, 2020
"He may not have realized it, but when [LA Dodgers owner Walter] O'Malley acquired the [Chavez Ravine Dodger Stadium] site, he was also acquiring the previous decade of dirty politics and legal warfare and the aftereffects of an essential, almost primordial fight over what it meant to be a city. He was acquiring not just the Los Angeles territory but also the history of those three communities and the weight of the crimes perpetrated against them; he was acquiring the hangover from the war over public housing the had made this land available in the first place."
Not so much a book about baseball, or even the (misguided) use of public funds to build stadiums in US cities. Instead this is a look at mid-20th Century Los Angeles politics, and the fight (reflecting national trends) between collective principles and mythic individualism; between communist sympathies and crony corrupt capitalism; between public housing and private real estate developers, and between Mexican immigrants and the White elite.
This book has huge range, stretching from the Mexican-American War in the 1840s to Fernandomania in the 1980s. 'It manages to summarize the entire history of baseball (including it's made up origins) and dive deep into topics like the House Un-American Activities Committee. At times its range is a bit befuddling and it's hard to keep a hold of all the plot threads, even for the two main characters whose lives run through and frame the core issue of the book. The first was Abrana Arechiga, an immigrant first to Arizona and then to LA who lived in a vibrant community in Chavez Ravine and who refused to leave her home after it was commended to be replaced by public housing. the other was Frank Wilkinson, also an Arizona transplant to LA, who was a spiritual crusader who believed in the power of public housing and who was brought low by corrupt real estate and political enemies and the HUAC. Their stories don't have neat good guys or bad guys or happy endings, but do reflect the complexities of using politics to attempt to do good and the ways government can be captured and perverted by the rich, and how myths (of Los Angeles or of baseball) can be used to cover all sorts of ugliness.
**Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
Not so much a book about baseball, or even the (misguided) use of public funds to build stadiums in US cities. Instead this is a look at mid-20th Century Los Angeles politics, and the fight (reflecting national trends) between collective principles and mythic individualism; between communist sympathies and crony corrupt capitalism; between public housing and private real estate developers, and between Mexican immigrants and the White elite.
This book has huge range, stretching from the Mexican-American War in the 1840s to Fernandomania in the 1980s. 'It manages to summarize the entire history of baseball (including it's made up origins) and dive deep into topics like the House Un-American Activities Committee. At times its range is a bit befuddling and it's hard to keep a hold of all the plot threads, even for the two main characters whose lives run through and frame the core issue of the book. The first was Abrana Arechiga, an immigrant first to Arizona and then to LA who lived in a vibrant community in Chavez Ravine and who refused to leave her home after it was commended to be replaced by public housing. the other was Frank Wilkinson, also an Arizona transplant to LA, who was a spiritual crusader who believed in the power of public housing and who was brought low by corrupt real estate and political enemies and the HUAC. Their stories don't have neat good guys or bad guys or happy endings, but do reflect the complexities of using politics to attempt to do good and the ways government can be captured and perverted by the rich, and how myths (of Los Angeles or of baseball) can be used to cover all sorts of ugliness.
**Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.
December 26, 2024
This is not a baseball book, irrespective of its title. It's a book about Los Angeles, first and foremost, and about the Red Scare, and Mexico, and people, and then, yes, there is some baseball. I'm in awe of the research that went into this book, and by Nusbaum's ability to write dispassionately about injustice after injustice.
May 2, 2024
If you’re looking for a focus specifically on how Dodger Stadium came to be built in Chavez Ravine, you will be wading through many other topics to get there. The author has crammed every little bit of his research on people, places, and events into this book. A lot of it is interesting but it makes for a long, rambling story.
February 11, 2020
This was a wonderful, beautiful read, a mix of family, city politics, and baseball. There are many books about the Los Angeles Dodgers, particularly about its move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. This book should become one of the most important ones, for the very reason that the battle to break ground at Chavez Ravine has little to do with baseball. For the City of Los Angeles to make Dodger Stadium happen, they uprooted the communities of Palo Verde, La Loma, and Bishop and forced its families to relinquish their homes.
This book focuses on the Aréchiga family, later known for being the faces of the last holdouts of the Palo Verde community before being forcibly evicted from their homes in 1959. It tells of Abrana Aréchiga finding her way to a strange land that would become Palo Verde, raising a large family (and a chicken coop). It tells of a Mexican immigrant community facing racist housing discrimination, settling into the one of the few parts of Los Angeles they were allowed to, building a life, and calling it home. And it tells of how they fought for their rights to their land, as eminent domain overruled those rights.
A decade before the forced evictions made way for Dodger Stadium, public housing advocates knocked on the doors of the Aréchiga household. A bitter fight in City Council ensued over a planned housing project to replace the Palo Verde, La Loma, and Bishop communities. After the proposed project was shut down, the city worked almost immediately on bringing big-league baseball to LA, eyeing the former housing project site for a new ballpark.
There is definitely a lot of baseball in this book. There are the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League, Jorge Pasquel and the Mexican League, Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella, Willie Davis, and Jaime Jarrin. The central baseball figure is Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley, he and his grand vision for a ballpark as an entertainment park. These pages were where I got my baseball fix in, learning more about the history of beautiful Dodger Stadium, its architecture and construction depicted in fascinating detail.
But baseball takes a backseat to the heroes of this story, who lived in the forgotten homes below today's Dodger Stadium parking lots. Most of us will never experience the pain of losing a home of four decades, or of being the target of city officials, or of being acutely reminded of bulldozed homes at each very sight of a ballpark. This book does the very important job of telling the stories of those who did experience such pain, reminding us of the great costs those families unwillingly bore for the sake of a ballpark they did not choose.
The author vividly paints a picture of a community lost in what was once Palo Verde. The city politics are thrilling and page-turning, turning a normally dry, disillusioning domain into exciting drama. The different characters come to life, tugging at the emotions of anger and sadness, filling one with both intrigue and nostalgia. The author carefully weaves together three storylines as they collide at Palo Verde: a family and their home displaced, a housing official and his ambitions dismantled, and a city and its national pastime deified above all else.
So that we don't forget, I highly recommend "Stealing Home" for all Dodger fans and any Angeleno who has ever attended a game at Chavez Ravine.
I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This book focuses on the Aréchiga family, later known for being the faces of the last holdouts of the Palo Verde community before being forcibly evicted from their homes in 1959. It tells of Abrana Aréchiga finding her way to a strange land that would become Palo Verde, raising a large family (and a chicken coop). It tells of a Mexican immigrant community facing racist housing discrimination, settling into the one of the few parts of Los Angeles they were allowed to, building a life, and calling it home. And it tells of how they fought for their rights to their land, as eminent domain overruled those rights.
A decade before the forced evictions made way for Dodger Stadium, public housing advocates knocked on the doors of the Aréchiga household. A bitter fight in City Council ensued over a planned housing project to replace the Palo Verde, La Loma, and Bishop communities. After the proposed project was shut down, the city worked almost immediately on bringing big-league baseball to LA, eyeing the former housing project site for a new ballpark.
There is definitely a lot of baseball in this book. There are the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League, Jorge Pasquel and the Mexican League, Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Roy Campanella, Willie Davis, and Jaime Jarrin. The central baseball figure is Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley, he and his grand vision for a ballpark as an entertainment park. These pages were where I got my baseball fix in, learning more about the history of beautiful Dodger Stadium, its architecture and construction depicted in fascinating detail.
But baseball takes a backseat to the heroes of this story, who lived in the forgotten homes below today's Dodger Stadium parking lots. Most of us will never experience the pain of losing a home of four decades, or of being the target of city officials, or of being acutely reminded of bulldozed homes at each very sight of a ballpark. This book does the very important job of telling the stories of those who did experience such pain, reminding us of the great costs those families unwillingly bore for the sake of a ballpark they did not choose.
The author vividly paints a picture of a community lost in what was once Palo Verde. The city politics are thrilling and page-turning, turning a normally dry, disillusioning domain into exciting drama. The different characters come to life, tugging at the emotions of anger and sadness, filling one with both intrigue and nostalgia. The author carefully weaves together three storylines as they collide at Palo Verde: a family and their home displaced, a housing official and his ambitions dismantled, and a city and its national pastime deified above all else.
So that we don't forget, I highly recommend "Stealing Home" for all Dodger fans and any Angeleno who has ever attended a game at Chavez Ravine.
I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
June 23, 2020
To say that this is a story about baseball, or about communities being pushed aside, or about America itself, is to reduce a beautiful narrative that intersects with all of the above and manages to be Los Angeles-centric nonetheless to something that's easy to fit onto a bookjacket sleeve. This might be one of the most unclassifiable books I've ever read, but it's also one of the best so far this year.
Eric Nusbaum starts with the story of Frank Wilkinson (a name I'd never come across before) visiting his high school and asking the assembled students how many of them loved Dodgers Stadium, in the mythic "Chavez Ravine." When Nusbaum raised his hand, Wilkinson said "well, it shouldn't be where it is." In that moment, the story of this book was born, though it took the author several years to realize what that story ultimately was.
It is, at its core, a story of America, not just in flag-waving tones that stir the heart of fair-weather patriots. This is a different America, a land where people come to seeking salvation or just a decent place to leave (like Manuel and Abrana Arechiga and their extended family, one of the many Mexican American families to live in the communities that would eventually be taken over by Dodger Stadium and its parking lots). It is the story of an idealistic man like Wilkinson, who grew up in luxury and was radically changed by the poverty he witnessed all around the world but especially in his home town of Los Angeles, and what he tried to do to alleviate that. It is the story of the Brooklyn Dodgers, the most progressive team in baseball (the first to sign an African-American player to break the color line) and also the most bewildered, unable to continue in Ebbets Field and looking westward to expand both its fanbase and the reach of major league baseball. All of these different elements coalesce around the machinations, both underhand and obvious to the public eye, to ensure that baseball would be part of the Southern California landscape, even if that meant removing people who had lived on that landscape for decades.
This is a beautiful, heartbreaking, odd little book that doesn't *really* fit into any easily-defined genre. But that's ultimately what's so great about it, and why I couldn't put it down when I started it. Give it a chance and you, too, will likely not be able to put it down until you've finished it.
Eric Nusbaum starts with the story of Frank Wilkinson (a name I'd never come across before) visiting his high school and asking the assembled students how many of them loved Dodgers Stadium, in the mythic "Chavez Ravine." When Nusbaum raised his hand, Wilkinson said "well, it shouldn't be where it is." In that moment, the story of this book was born, though it took the author several years to realize what that story ultimately was.
It is, at its core, a story of America, not just in flag-waving tones that stir the heart of fair-weather patriots. This is a different America, a land where people come to seeking salvation or just a decent place to leave (like Manuel and Abrana Arechiga and their extended family, one of the many Mexican American families to live in the communities that would eventually be taken over by Dodger Stadium and its parking lots). It is the story of an idealistic man like Wilkinson, who grew up in luxury and was radically changed by the poverty he witnessed all around the world but especially in his home town of Los Angeles, and what he tried to do to alleviate that. It is the story of the Brooklyn Dodgers, the most progressive team in baseball (the first to sign an African-American player to break the color line) and also the most bewildered, unable to continue in Ebbets Field and looking westward to expand both its fanbase and the reach of major league baseball. All of these different elements coalesce around the machinations, both underhand and obvious to the public eye, to ensure that baseball would be part of the Southern California landscape, even if that meant removing people who had lived on that landscape for decades.
This is a beautiful, heartbreaking, odd little book that doesn't *really* fit into any easily-defined genre. But that's ultimately what's so great about it, and why I couldn't put it down when I started it. Give it a chance and you, too, will likely not be able to put it down until you've finished it.
July 4, 2025
This book meant a lot to me. I was gifted it by my parents in 2021, soon after I finished my final paper for one of my freshman classes: intro to chicanx/latinx histories. At the time I couldn’t really look at it, considering that 20-page final paper (plus a YouTube video summary) was, ostensibly, about the very same topic - the uprooting of those living in the area now known as Chavez Ravine. Now, having finally read the book four years later, I realize I was both right and wrong.
My paper was embarrassingly reductive of the story, poorly researched, and hurriedly written. I’ve still yet to revisit it (out of shame), but I just know. I mean hey, I was 18, it was the pandemic, etc.
But interestingly enough, my paper started by profiling the exact same woman that this author chose to frame his story around, along with the rest of her family: the Aréchigas. There was something so disturbing about her uprooting from her house that really stuck with me, and now I know why.
Eric Nusbaum writes an empathetic, thoughtful, and human story of one of the most bizarre and unjust instances in the history of Los Angeles (take my opinion with a grain of salt, but that’s how I’m feeling rn). His focus on the last family that held out in the face of a now multi-billion dollar franchise underscores the thesis of his book: that, although the pride and community the Dodgers have brought to Los Angeles are unquantifiable and unquestioningly positive, they do nothing to wipe out the injustices done to the populations of Bishop, La Loma, and Palo Verde that are uniquely their own.
I’m hoping to be a history teacher one day, and this book is one of those affirmations of the importance and the practicality of that path. Nusbaum is so conversational, so illustrative of the complexities of the people in this narrative, that the movements of which they were a part of feel tactile and real. Communism, McCarthyism, Big Oil, big propaganda, the postwar period of my city are all on a display in a way that felt fresh to someone who has tried his best to wrap his head around them for the better part of his short studies (me). I’ve worried a lot about how to dissect and illuminate macro-level trends of history while still maintaining respect for the people who actually lived it, and Nusbaum’s writing gives me hope that it’s possible. Not that it was perfect or anything, but you get me.
Last couple thoughts: I love baseball. If you love baseball, you’ll love the book. I’m not talking about stats and all the obsessive fan stuff, but just the weird philosophical and religious pushes and pulls that American sports have on populations throughout time. If that sounds really stupid, please don’t let my poor writing skills take away from the genre that Nusbaum and Jon Bois are pioneering as we speak.
Shoutout to my great grandpa.
My paper was embarrassingly reductive of the story, poorly researched, and hurriedly written. I’ve still yet to revisit it (out of shame), but I just know. I mean hey, I was 18, it was the pandemic, etc.
But interestingly enough, my paper started by profiling the exact same woman that this author chose to frame his story around, along with the rest of her family: the Aréchigas. There was something so disturbing about her uprooting from her house that really stuck with me, and now I know why.
Eric Nusbaum writes an empathetic, thoughtful, and human story of one of the most bizarre and unjust instances in the history of Los Angeles (take my opinion with a grain of salt, but that’s how I’m feeling rn). His focus on the last family that held out in the face of a now multi-billion dollar franchise underscores the thesis of his book: that, although the pride and community the Dodgers have brought to Los Angeles are unquantifiable and unquestioningly positive, they do nothing to wipe out the injustices done to the populations of Bishop, La Loma, and Palo Verde that are uniquely their own.
I’m hoping to be a history teacher one day, and this book is one of those affirmations of the importance and the practicality of that path. Nusbaum is so conversational, so illustrative of the complexities of the people in this narrative, that the movements of which they were a part of feel tactile and real. Communism, McCarthyism, Big Oil, big propaganda, the postwar period of my city are all on a display in a way that felt fresh to someone who has tried his best to wrap his head around them for the better part of his short studies (me). I’ve worried a lot about how to dissect and illuminate macro-level trends of history while still maintaining respect for the people who actually lived it, and Nusbaum’s writing gives me hope that it’s possible. Not that it was perfect or anything, but you get me.
Last couple thoughts: I love baseball. If you love baseball, you’ll love the book. I’m not talking about stats and all the obsessive fan stuff, but just the weird philosophical and religious pushes and pulls that American sports have on populations throughout time. If that sounds really stupid, please don’t let my poor writing skills take away from the genre that Nusbaum and Jon Bois are pioneering as we speak.
Shoutout to my great grandpa.
February 20, 2022
Baseball by the Book 050420: "Three lively Mexican-American communities once stood in the hills that are now home to Dodger Stadium. Author Eric Nusbaum joins us to discuss an incredible story of impassioned immigrants, Red Scare politics and how the dream of baseball in Southern California affected countless lives."
May 8, 2025
anyone who lives in LA and/or loves the dodgers should read this book
November 14, 2021
I’m genuinely confused by people giving this scattered, nebulous mess five-star reviews. What Nusbaum has is a Sunday L.A. Times Magazine piece that he’s bloated and overstuffed with trivia to turn it into a “book.”
This book spent about 200 pages going through a tedious form of throat clearing, going from the mountains of Mexico to Hernan Cortés, the Mexican Revolution, to President Polk, Santa Anna’s wooden leg, the creation of bubble gum, Theosophy, Abner Doubleday, the House Un-American Activities Committee, Richard Nixon, the Zoot Suit riots, Clifton’s Cafeteria, the Tongva people, and on and on—but not in a coherent or powerful way that made any broader point that I could discern.
Instead, the majority of the book is made up of barely-integrated Wikipedia fun facts jotted onto index cards and then formatted into two-to-three-page “chapters.” The reader becomes despondent, wondering what the f the point is as she plods through dozens of chapters of digressions about Santa Anna creating chewing gum or the history of copper mining in Arizona.
The writing style also grates, as Nusbaum waxes poetic about the deeper meaning of baseball and Los Angeles and American history in a sophomoric, larded, workshop style that continually grasps for a rhetorical power that remains ever out of its reach. You can feel Nusbaum trying to capture some kind of emotional punch by dialing the purple on his prose to 11. It ends up feeling cringey.
Finally, it’s absurd that Nusbaum waits until the last thirty pages of the book to explain why public sympathy dried up for the Arechigas. [Spoiler: They in fact owned many other properties throughout the city.] Nusbaum’s indefensible decision to hide this ball leaves the reader feeling manipulated. Nusbaum was apparently more interested in telling some kind of poor-man’s E.L. Doctorow story with a misleading political bent than in just reporting facts: Because there was no need for anyone to report these facts at book-length again. Especially not like this.
This book spent about 200 pages going through a tedious form of throat clearing, going from the mountains of Mexico to Hernan Cortés, the Mexican Revolution, to President Polk, Santa Anna’s wooden leg, the creation of bubble gum, Theosophy, Abner Doubleday, the House Un-American Activities Committee, Richard Nixon, the Zoot Suit riots, Clifton’s Cafeteria, the Tongva people, and on and on—but not in a coherent or powerful way that made any broader point that I could discern.
Instead, the majority of the book is made up of barely-integrated Wikipedia fun facts jotted onto index cards and then formatted into two-to-three-page “chapters.” The reader becomes despondent, wondering what the f the point is as she plods through dozens of chapters of digressions about Santa Anna creating chewing gum or the history of copper mining in Arizona.
The writing style also grates, as Nusbaum waxes poetic about the deeper meaning of baseball and Los Angeles and American history in a sophomoric, larded, workshop style that continually grasps for a rhetorical power that remains ever out of its reach. You can feel Nusbaum trying to capture some kind of emotional punch by dialing the purple on his prose to 11. It ends up feeling cringey.
Finally, it’s absurd that Nusbaum waits until the last thirty pages of the book to explain why public sympathy dried up for the Arechigas. [Spoiler: They in fact owned many other properties throughout the city.] Nusbaum’s indefensible decision to hide this ball leaves the reader feeling manipulated. Nusbaum was apparently more interested in telling some kind of poor-man’s E.L. Doctorow story with a misleading political bent than in just reporting facts: Because there was no need for anyone to report these facts at book-length again. Especially not like this.
October 25, 2021
As someone who works for the City of Los Angeles as a City Planner this book was both moving and heartbreaking. I strongly believe it should be required reading for anyone coming into the Planning Department, or any Dodger fan. Long ago eminent domain was ruled to be illegal except for very rare circumstances, and rightfully so. This book is a great telling of the history of not just Los Angeles, but of Chavez Ravine, Clifton's Cafeteria, and the building of Dodger Stadium, in addition to a lot of history about Los Angeles and the Dodgers in general. Who knew the contractor who built Dodger Stadium also built Grand Coulee Dam?
October 4, 2025
Harsh truths abound, and Nusbaum doesn't sugarcoat them, nor should he. The story of how Dodger Stadium came to be is sobering and sad for those displaced and repatriated, and hollowly triumphant for those who wanted baseball over social betterment. I love baseball, but I often find myself hating what antiquated rules and thoughtless behavior it perpetuates, and this book delves into those rules and that behavior. I found the legal details hard to follow, but maybe that was the point -- they were hard for everyone to follow, which contributed significantly to the ensuing mess. Overall, Nusbaum wove together several simultaneous narratives to give a full, detailed, yet somehow swift overview of what exactly happened and why people were so conflicted about it. (And he wrote really short chapters with lots of blank space, if you feel like feeling smart as you tear through the pages!)
January 6, 2025
This one was a brutal read, but extremely important. I love the Dodgers, but we can’t deny the rough history of Los Angeles. An important read for anyone passionate about this sport or this city.
February 6, 2025
Very interesting historical look at the people and time in LA and to an extend the country leading up to the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn and heading west.
July 28, 2022
As an aficionado of history as well as a baseball fan from my childhood I was really interested in this piece. Eric Nusbaum tells the history of the families that were displaced from the various Los Angeles area communities (La Loma, Palo Verde, and Bishop) that are now know as Chavez Ravine. Chavez Ravine was home to these three communities that were mostly Mexican-American. I had read other authors mention this history in some of their fictional work and it intrigued me to purchase this on Audible.
I listened the Audible edition of Nusbaum's book and found the history to be wildly fascinating as he told the tale of how Major League Baseball (MLB) came to Los Angeles. He tells of histories of a families that were displaced from the homes by the city using eminent domain and the promise of community housing. Throughout the book are also the histories of Dodgers players Duke Snider and Wilie Davis. Snider was born is Los Angeles and graduated from Compton HighSchool. Davis moved to Los Angeles as a child and graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School. The book also covers the history of a man named Frank Wilkinson who became a victim of the Red Scare and his story could be a standalone biography worth reading.
Oe of the last families to hold out were Manuel and Abrana Arechiga and their daughter Aurora. Tjey chose to not accept the city's offer of $10,500 for their property. Ultimately, they were forcibly removed from their property by the Los Angeles Sherrif's Department.
To know some of the history of how the city handled the events that led to the now famous ballpark in Chavez Ravine known as Dodger Stadium is fascinating. It has become a symbol of the city, yet beneath the glitz and glamour of Hollywood there lays such an interesting foundation that feels quite tragic.
In the end, this Audible production was good and informative and I learned many things. The written version may have a different feel than the Audible version. However, this version for me felt rushed in the pace and a bit hectic in transitioning from one part of the history to another. Narrator David Owen Nelson provides a pleasant enough experience but with the pacing and feel it was somewhat of a challenge to complete.
I listened the Audible edition of Nusbaum's book and found the history to be wildly fascinating as he told the tale of how Major League Baseball (MLB) came to Los Angeles. He tells of histories of a families that were displaced from the homes by the city using eminent domain and the promise of community housing. Throughout the book are also the histories of Dodgers players Duke Snider and Wilie Davis. Snider was born is Los Angeles and graduated from Compton HighSchool. Davis moved to Los Angeles as a child and graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School. The book also covers the history of a man named Frank Wilkinson who became a victim of the Red Scare and his story could be a standalone biography worth reading.
Oe of the last families to hold out were Manuel and Abrana Arechiga and their daughter Aurora. Tjey chose to not accept the city's offer of $10,500 for their property. Ultimately, they were forcibly removed from their property by the Los Angeles Sherrif's Department.
To know some of the history of how the city handled the events that led to the now famous ballpark in Chavez Ravine known as Dodger Stadium is fascinating. It has become a symbol of the city, yet beneath the glitz and glamour of Hollywood there lays such an interesting foundation that feels quite tragic.
In the end, this Audible production was good and informative and I learned many things. The written version may have a different feel than the Audible version. However, this version for me felt rushed in the pace and a bit hectic in transitioning from one part of the history to another. Narrator David Owen Nelson provides a pleasant enough experience but with the pacing and feel it was somewhat of a challenge to complete.
August 11, 2022
As a baseball and history fan, I thoroughly enjoyed Stealing Home by Eric Nusbaum. I both read and listened to the audio version. I found the narrator to have somewhat of a monotone, so I listened while driving and then read the real old fashioned way at night. Mr. Nusbaum tells his story by focusing on several main characters, and as is common in books today, goes back and forth weaving the stories together over time. There is Abrana Arechiga, who refuses to give into eminent domain and leave her property, Frank Wilkinson, who had grand public housing ideas, Walter O'Malley, owner of the Dodgers, Duke Snider & other ball players, and corrupt LA politicians. I find recent (the last 200 years) history to be more and more fascinating as I age. If you like baseball and history of LA, I recommend this book.
May 23, 2020
this is an airport book which isn't necessarily a bad thing but it's one of those books your mom picks up when she's buying spearmint gum in the airport convenience store and reads four chapters on the plane before forgetting about it and falling asleep and never picking it up again until she realizes it's been on her bedstand covered in dust for 4 years. that sounds really negative but there's a time and place for books like this. not super analytical, too broad but easily digestible. i enjoyed it and learned a lot about my own city, or perhaps it just re-enforced my perceptions of LA. it's straightforward and the story is interesting enough that it basically writes itself.
in this way, the book sometimes reminds me of a bunch of Wikipedia articles -- about the creation of gum and the siege on Chapultepec Castle and the architecture of Dodger Stadium and public housing and Richard Neutra -- all stitched together to create a document that is overwhelming with bare-faced facts and knowledge but pretty underwhelming when it comes to momentum. each chapter is about 2 pages long and they bounce around 3 general plotlines: the creation of baseball, the displacement of residents in Chavez Ravine and the push to build public housing in Los Angeles. Within each thread, there are also about 40 different things going on with 500 different characters and a slew of fun facts. it's all interesting and makes you kinda marvel but, like a Wikipedia article, these fun facts are interesting in and among themselves. Nusbaum does very little analysis or even narrative work and a lot of the book just sort of hangs there, slightly contextualized among the falseness of manifest destiny and institutional racism.
a lot of this book reminds me of how i was taught history in middle school and some parts of high school. history, as nusbaum writes, is something rather clear-cut, straightforward, and un-ideological. like i said, there is some broad stitching referring to the "myths of LA" and discourse around informality and formality of "home" and grassroots movements, but these threads are always ethereal - just floating without any actual intention or meaning behind them. we know LA's corrupt (there's a whole genre of movie around this fact!) and privatized and ultra-capitalist and car-friendly and dispossessed and multi-cultural and beautiful in its own drought-y way but I wish Nusbaum went deeper into who was perpetuating these myths and why they were being perpetrated and how the direct outcome of this was oftentimes violent and contradictory policy. Nusbaum zooms over the history of LA, and the US, like a sky-bound helicopter, and is making some very acute observations but rarely does anything with these observations. the zoot suit riots, a potential terrorist attack, a movement to provide everyone with public housing (despite the dispossession this movement necessitated), the HUAC committee and it's oppressive tactics and the corruptness of the LA Times are all skimmed through like you're at a tapas restaurant, eating a lot of everything but getting your fill of nothing. Nusbaum is writing a book about fighters and bravery and what home means and who dictates what home is. I wish the book itself was braver in its analysis and argument.
in this way, the book sometimes reminds me of a bunch of Wikipedia articles -- about the creation of gum and the siege on Chapultepec Castle and the architecture of Dodger Stadium and public housing and Richard Neutra -- all stitched together to create a document that is overwhelming with bare-faced facts and knowledge but pretty underwhelming when it comes to momentum. each chapter is about 2 pages long and they bounce around 3 general plotlines: the creation of baseball, the displacement of residents in Chavez Ravine and the push to build public housing in Los Angeles. Within each thread, there are also about 40 different things going on with 500 different characters and a slew of fun facts. it's all interesting and makes you kinda marvel but, like a Wikipedia article, these fun facts are interesting in and among themselves. Nusbaum does very little analysis or even narrative work and a lot of the book just sort of hangs there, slightly contextualized among the falseness of manifest destiny and institutional racism.
a lot of this book reminds me of how i was taught history in middle school and some parts of high school. history, as nusbaum writes, is something rather clear-cut, straightforward, and un-ideological. like i said, there is some broad stitching referring to the "myths of LA" and discourse around informality and formality of "home" and grassroots movements, but these threads are always ethereal - just floating without any actual intention or meaning behind them. we know LA's corrupt (there's a whole genre of movie around this fact!) and privatized and ultra-capitalist and car-friendly and dispossessed and multi-cultural and beautiful in its own drought-y way but I wish Nusbaum went deeper into who was perpetuating these myths and why they were being perpetrated and how the direct outcome of this was oftentimes violent and contradictory policy. Nusbaum zooms over the history of LA, and the US, like a sky-bound helicopter, and is making some very acute observations but rarely does anything with these observations. the zoot suit riots, a potential terrorist attack, a movement to provide everyone with public housing (despite the dispossession this movement necessitated), the HUAC committee and it's oppressive tactics and the corruptness of the LA Times are all skimmed through like you're at a tapas restaurant, eating a lot of everything but getting your fill of nothing. Nusbaum is writing a book about fighters and bravery and what home means and who dictates what home is. I wish the book itself was braver in its analysis and argument.
July 10, 2020
I honestly don't know exactly what to make of this book. I think the author Eric Nusbaum felt he had a story about how Dodger Stadium came to be that he wanted to relate, and he succeeded in doing that. But toward the end of the book, he explains how public sympathy for the principal holdout family living in the neighborhood where the stadium was built, dried up. For me, at least, this removed much of the motivation for "rooting for the underdog," so to speak. I do think Nusbaum wrote a reasonably balanced account of Dodger Stadium's creation, sometimes lauding Walter O'Malley and his family, and at other times making us cheer for the Arechiga family, one of the last families to leave what would become Chavez Ravine. If you are new to the history of major league baseball in America, you will probably learn much from this book. Or if you are a recent arrival to LA and are interested in the history of Dodger Stadium, you may also enjoy this book.
But this or a similar story could be written about almost any large public venue in America. It was a little different in Los Angeles, in that the place where Dodger Stadium came to be built was originally slated for a large public housing project that never came to be, even after the city condemned the neighborhoods and used Eminent Domain to appropriate the land. But every city's stadium, for use by major league baseball or by its professional football team, probably has a similar story - one where poor people living in the neighborhood selected for the stadium site are removed, willingly or not - after which the city public officials and the team owners use the land to build the stadium. Nusbaum doesn't discuss this fact in his book, and I don't think he needed to. But people who read this book should be aware that the story of LA's Dodger Stadium is really not that different or more compelling than most other North American stadiums built in the 20th or 21st century.
But this or a similar story could be written about almost any large public venue in America. It was a little different in Los Angeles, in that the place where Dodger Stadium came to be built was originally slated for a large public housing project that never came to be, even after the city condemned the neighborhoods and used Eminent Domain to appropriate the land. But every city's stadium, for use by major league baseball or by its professional football team, probably has a similar story - one where poor people living in the neighborhood selected for the stadium site are removed, willingly or not - after which the city public officials and the team owners use the land to build the stadium. Nusbaum doesn't discuss this fact in his book, and I don't think he needed to. But people who read this book should be aware that the story of LA's Dodger Stadium is really not that different or more compelling than most other North American stadiums built in the 20th or 21st century.
January 8, 2021
If you’re a sports fan with a social conscience, you’ve probably had that moment where you realize that sports, professional and collegiate, are a labor-exploiting racist racket. It’s comparable to being a kid and realizing Santa Claus isn’t real. I’ve had those moments too, long before the backlash to Colin Kaepernick’s protest or seeing the words “Black Lives Matter” on a basketball court.
Eric Nusbaum, a sports fan like me, had it when he was a kid, when an octogenarian former activist and HUAC victim Frank Wilkinson told him in his class that Dodger Stadium should never have been built. Like me with the Baltimore Orioles, young Eric worshipped the Los Angeles Dodgers; their stadium a cathedral for his fandom. To hear that was painful.
Fortunately, adult Eric turned his pain into storytelling by giving an excellent account on the lives and events that comprised the controversial building of Dodger Stadium, which wiped out three distinct communities in what is now referred to as Chavez Ravine. Following the lives of the Arechiga family, as well as Wilkinson and other bit players in and around Los Angeles, Nusbaum tells a story that covers baseball, politics, history, immigration and so much more.
Using a short chapter technique (most of the 70+ chapters are 2-3 pages) helped balance the story and prevent run ons and tangents. The reader feels fully invested in what’s happening and realizes that the tragedy of Dodger Stadium is part of a bigger problem with the country, with finances, with racism and colonization, with so many things.
The story is thoroughly Los Angeles and thoroughly American. And told in a way that is teachable, digestible, and accessible. Bravo, Eric Nusbaum. One of the best pieces of non-fiction I’ve read the last few years.
Eric Nusbaum, a sports fan like me, had it when he was a kid, when an octogenarian former activist and HUAC victim Frank Wilkinson told him in his class that Dodger Stadium should never have been built. Like me with the Baltimore Orioles, young Eric worshipped the Los Angeles Dodgers; their stadium a cathedral for his fandom. To hear that was painful.
Fortunately, adult Eric turned his pain into storytelling by giving an excellent account on the lives and events that comprised the controversial building of Dodger Stadium, which wiped out three distinct communities in what is now referred to as Chavez Ravine. Following the lives of the Arechiga family, as well as Wilkinson and other bit players in and around Los Angeles, Nusbaum tells a story that covers baseball, politics, history, immigration and so much more.
Using a short chapter technique (most of the 70+ chapters are 2-3 pages) helped balance the story and prevent run ons and tangents. The reader feels fully invested in what’s happening and realizes that the tragedy of Dodger Stadium is part of a bigger problem with the country, with finances, with racism and colonization, with so many things.
The story is thoroughly Los Angeles and thoroughly American. And told in a way that is teachable, digestible, and accessible. Bravo, Eric Nusbaum. One of the best pieces of non-fiction I’ve read the last few years.
July 30, 2020
This is a good book, well written with Nusbaum weaving together vignettes of times, places, and people to craft a compelling story. Each chapter is short and stands, it would seem, alone from the preceding one, but ultimately all roads (chapters) lead to Chavez Ravine and the Dodgers' arrival back in the late 1950's.
This is NOT a book about the Dodgers, which I judged it would be by the cover and the subtitle. Oh, sure, O'Malley and the Boys in Blue show up in force in the closing chapters, but they are merely the end of the story, not the story itself.
From the Mexican War in the 1840's, Manifest Destiny, La Ciudad de Los Angeles and it's growth, to the birth, growth and spread of baseball and a handful of players - those who wore uniforms in the story and those who don't - to public housing and communism make up the lively narrative.
I liked it, even if it wasn't what I thought it'd be
This is NOT a book about the Dodgers, which I judged it would be by the cover and the subtitle. Oh, sure, O'Malley and the Boys in Blue show up in force in the closing chapters, but they are merely the end of the story, not the story itself.
From the Mexican War in the 1840's, Manifest Destiny, La Ciudad de Los Angeles and it's growth, to the birth, growth and spread of baseball and a handful of players - those who wore uniforms in the story and those who don't - to public housing and communism make up the lively narrative.
I liked it, even if it wasn't what I thought it'd be
March 14, 2021
I just think the author missed the mark. Too much focus on Santa Anna inventing chewing gum and Abner Doubleday. Too much focus on convincing the reader that the Hispanic families were worthy of fairness because they had sent sons and brothers to war. They're worthy because they are Americans.
I would've preferred a history of Los Angeles and a bit more in-depth look at Los Angeles' shift in focus from the time the family moves there until whatever factor (Hollywood, Disney, the coast) made them a major metropolitan area.
Also, the devil's in the details. How many families were affected by the public housing project and then Dodgers Stadium? Why was the city completely unwilling to provide a fair off? What were the financial stakes for both sides? Why was a seemingly progressive council member like Roz Wyman almost equally as disinterested in the Aréchigas' plight? And why did Frank Wilkinson's story fall off the page?
I would've preferred a history of Los Angeles and a bit more in-depth look at Los Angeles' shift in focus from the time the family moves there until whatever factor (Hollywood, Disney, the coast) made them a major metropolitan area.
Also, the devil's in the details. How many families were affected by the public housing project and then Dodgers Stadium? Why was the city completely unwilling to provide a fair off? What were the financial stakes for both sides? Why was a seemingly progressive council member like Roz Wyman almost equally as disinterested in the Aréchigas' plight? And why did Frank Wilkinson's story fall off the page?
March 13, 2021
I had to read this book for school and I found it very difficult to get through. There is a constant there are 70+ chapters in this book and each chapter is changed POV. There are some reoccurring characters, but for the most part this book is hard to keep track of who is who and tries to do too much. This book is like 3 books in one, the plight of Mexican American families as they try to save their home, one man’s political journey/Red Scare America and random Dodger tidbits and stories.
July 20, 2022
I really wanted to like this book more than I did. It was honestly really long and drawn out story. The story itself was interesting. Lots of cool great bits and pieces, but many times I was bored. I almost didn't finish it, but I did. Clean read, but not very high on the recommendation list.
May 13, 2021
Chose this book if you are interested in baseball, land use, immigration, public process, Los Angeles, subsidized housing, red baiting, coalition building, privilege or racism. I’m fascinated by all but the first, and enjoyed taking in the neatly packaged views.
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