Stealing Home: A Father, a Son, and the Road to the Perfect Game by Ron SeyboldMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Stealing Home is a story about a man, his son, a road trip, baseball and a historic game. The author is determined to have the most memorable vacation with his son. Ron Seybold is divorced, and sees his son on established weekends and vacation times. In spite of this, he is determined to be the father that he never had, rather than the angry father that raised him.
He faces the fact that, so far, he has been he has been just that—angry, anxious and unpleasant to be around. Without telling us in so many words, he shows us the decision he made to change, to become a father worth remembering, rather than one whose children struggle to forget. He plans an epic vacation with his son. Their strongest bonds are Simpsons quotes and baseball, so he begins there. In a pre-internet world he gathers maps, a baseball atlas, phone numbers and a credit card to put together hotels, seats at games, a convertible Pontiac Sunbird, and a plan to have a baseball road trip; nine games in eight different cities in five states.
The memoir uses the games as a framework, punctuated by memories of his own childhood, his son's earlier years, his first marriage, all of which has brought him to this trip this summer in 1994. It's a book about struggling with anxiety, about fatherhood and about baseball. It is intensely personal and resonates me on many levels. But, the brilliant thing is how many different people different aspects of the memoir will resonate with.
A veteran sports writer, Ron Seybold has written a small, powerful book that is so very readable I would recommend it to almost anybody. Take it for a spin.
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