Books & Looks

#112 - Beyond the Final Homestand: Small Towns, Bleacher Dreams, and America's Soul

Published: 25 March 2025 at 09:00 Europe/London

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Episode notes

When a corporate spreadsheet erased 42 minor league baseball teams from America's map, it didn't just kill baseball in places like Batavia, New York - it threatened to dismantle the last institution where a Vietnam veteran finds peace, political adversaries share beers as friends, and a young man with cerebral palsy washes uniforms by hand until 2 AM. In "Homestand," author Will Bardenwerper, a former Army Ranger, reveals what happens when profit-driven efficiency collides with our deepest need for belonging. As citizens rally to save their century-old Muckdogs, their story exposes a choice facing communities everywhere: surrender our local institutions to corporate consolidation, or fight to preserve the authentic spaces where strangers become neighbors and divided towns discover common ground.

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