Stealing Home: Exploring the Lives of Angelenos and the Dodgers in Los Angeles

Yibran A.: Great investigation and threading of various lines of history that come together in all that’s behind Dodger stadium being built in Chávez Ravine.

Mexico on Mar 26, 2023

House of Wolves.: This book turned out to be a lot more engaging and vivid than I expected. Typically, books like this that dive into this kind of subject matter tend to drone on and present themselves very clinically, but that was not the case with this one and for that, Eric should feel very proud.

I am an Angeleno through and through as well as a massive Dodgers fan. My brother and I were born fifteen minutes away from Dodger Stadium. Our parents and grandparents were deeply involved in and cared for this wonderful thing that is Dodgers Baseball.

Growing up in LA, inevitably you hear about the communities that were “destroyed” to make room for our beloved stadium. Most of those stories told to you in condescending tones from contrarians who could care less about baseball, they’re just trying to project negativity in the world and justify their bitterness.

I remember hearing about this book from a friend who had read it. My initial reaction was “great....another book tearing down my favorite ballclub.” I had just about a year ago read “BUMS” that was essentially just a grumpy old man documentation and vent-fest of the ballclub that their city let slip through...

United States on Jul 17, 2020

Andrew Joskow: This is the story of how a failed public housing initiative, a somewhat shady land swap, and the red scare of the 40s and 50s came together to create Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. If you're looking for details about the wrangling with the New York City that led Walter O'Malley to move the Dodgers from Brooklyn, this book is not for you. There are only one or two pages on that. This is the story from the Los Angeles side -- the people who lived in the Chavez Ravine area, and those who worked for various Los Angeles city agencies. In the end, the story comes together nicely, and the reader is tugged emotionally by what happened to those who considered this area their home and the impact on those ruined by the red scare (Frank Wilkinson, in particular). But the story starts out a bit disjointed, and it is difficult at the beginning to see where it is all going. Some of the early chapters seem to come out of nowhere, with some almost seeming as they were random research notes. Maybe a bit more foreshadowing at the beginning may have improved that aspect of the book. A summary on the book jacket is not enough. But as I said, it all comes together in the end, and it is a very revealing...

United States on Jul 01, 2020

Laila K: I loved this book which has been the highlight of my pandemic reading splurge.  This well-researched work written by a native son has ridded me of the impression that the Dodgers were to blame for evicting poor Mexican immigrants from  their houses in the area of Los Angeles called Chavez Ravine. Nusbaum fills the reader in on the political machinations leading up to the destruction of the long established and close knit neighborhoods of Palo Verde and others, the rejection of public housing and the wooing of O'Malley and the Dodgers at first reluctant to leave New York.  The book also tells the story of Frank Wilkinson, a progressive activist and a leader in the fight for low-income housing and how his career was crushed in part due to the atmosphere of the McCarthy era and HUAC.  I found it particularly heartening that the author's interest in his subject was sparked by a visit to his high school  by Wilkinson at the invitation of his social studies instructor.  It shows the great influence a good teacher can have in making history come alive.  For anyone interested in the history of Los Angeles and/or baseball Stealing Home is a must read.

United States on May 28, 2020

Rick Jackson: Eric Nusbaum has amazingly researched this book. Tracing the history of the key families who would ultimately be forcibly evicted in the name of progress for 1950's LA, eventually seeing their community obliterated for Dodgers Stadium. He took fascinating characters, who were unknowns to most of us, and told their backstories and how each of them contributed to the "Chavez Ravine Tale." Frank Wilkinson was an amazing character, whose chance encounter in his very late years with the book's author got this story percolating in the author's mind. The story of Roz Wyman, who unbelievably won an LA City Council seat at age 22, and how she had a dramatic impact on the Dodgers' move from Brooklyn in 1958. It blends enough direct baseball information in here also, to enhance the story and make any baseball fan, especially a Dodgers' fan, keep turning the pages. The book holds emotion, drama, personal stories of heroism, the nastiness of politics, and racism. IT really does have it all, in my opinion. I bought five copies of this book and sent them to a childhood friend and three authors, whom I believe, will love this book. The fifth was for me, which I sunk my teeth into right away....

United States on Apr 15, 2020