{"product_id":"homestand-small-town-baseball-and-the-fight-for-the-soul-of-america","title":"Homestand: Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America","description":"\u003cb\u003eA poignant memoir exploring small town baseball as a lens into what's right and wrong with modern America--written by an acclaimed journalist and Army Ranger who, after returning from Iraq to a painfully divided country, rediscovered its core values in the bleachers of a minor league ballpark in Batavia, New York.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhat happens when a minor league team--the heart and soul of a Rust Belt town in western New York--is shut down by the billionaires who run Major League Baseball? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBatavia, New York--between Rochester and Buffalo--hosted its first professional baseball game in 1897. Despite decades of deindustrialization and evaporating middle-class jobs, the Batavia Muckdogs endured. When Major League Baseball cravenly shut them down in 2020--along with forty-one other minor league teams--the town fought back, reviving the Muckdogs as a summer league team comprised of college players. As MLB considers further cuts and private equity buys up what remains, the mom-and-pop operations once prevalent in baseball are endangered. But for now, the sights and sounds of local baseball live on in Batavia--cheap draft beer and hot dogs, starry-eyed kids seeking autographs, and breathtaking summer sunsets. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith a vibrant, unforgettable cast of characters--from a librarian and her best friend whose relationship deepens with every \"crepuscular hour\" they spend together in the bleachers, to the former hockey brawler-turned team owner who greets regulars while working the concession stand, to the iconoclastic writer with a contagious love for his struggling hometown--Bardenwerper's \u003ci\u003eHomestand\u003c\/i\u003e exposes the beating heart of small town America, friends and neighbors coming together as the crack of the bat echoes in the summer twilight.","brand":"Will Bardenwerper","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":46327847059692,"sku":"9780385549653","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0684\/1791\/3068\/files\/9780385549653.jpg?v=1743471161","url":"https:\/\/intl.allstora.com\/products\/homestand-small-town-baseball-and-the-fight-for-the-soul-of-america","provider":"Allstora","version":"1.0","type":"link"}