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.

http://armchairsquid.blogspot.com/201...

Great read for capturing the sentiment embodied in the true baseball fan.

If you're a Tigers fan, from Detroit or remember Tiger Stadium, read this book. It will bring back memories.

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.

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.

Such a great book. You don’t need to be a Tigers fan to enjoy it. If you enjoy baseball and the connections to family that the sport creates then you will love this book. After I finished reading, I wanted to give this book a big hug.

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, people that own the 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.

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.

Good, but not great, book on the final season at Tiger Stadium. The author takes us on an emotional family journey on what the Tigers, and Tiger Stadium, meant to him and his family throughout his life. He aquires press credentials for the full season and writes a re-cap, that is interwoven, with familial anecdotes, about what the stadium meant to him.

This book struck a note with me as I had just gone through this with the closing, and subsequent demolition, of Yankee Stadium with my father and my sons. It brought me back to different times and games I had attended as a child, a teenager, a young adult and, finally, a father. I found myself remembering things long past as well as looking into old photo albums to resurrect my past.

If nothing else, it's a good read for those that have had baseball intertwined through their lives, no matter their favorite team.

Sentimental without being mawkish, and very well-written. Must-read for anyone with a fondness for old sports stadia.

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.