Stealing Home

Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between

By: Eric Nusbaum

Narrated by: David Owen Nelson

Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

A story about baseball, family, the American Dream, and the fight to turn Los Angeles into a big league city.

Dodger Stadium is an American icon. But the story of how it came to be goes far beyond baseball. The hills that cradle the stadium were once home to three vibrant Mexican American communities. In the early 1950s, those communities were condemned to make way for a utopian public housing project. Then, in a remarkable turn, public housing in the city was defeated amidst a Red Scare conspiracy.

Instead of getting their homes back, the remaining residents saw the city sell their land to Walter O'Malley, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Now LA would be getting a different sort of utopian fantasy - a glittering, ultra-modern stadium.

But before Dodger Stadium could be built, the city would have to face down the neighborhood's families - including one, the Aréchigas, who refused to yield their home. The ensuing confrontation captivated the nation - and the divisive outcome still echoes through Los Angeles today.

©2020 Eric Nusbaum (P)2020 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Stealing Home has a driving plot, a humane heart, and a proud conscience. Read it and enjoy the story, or read it and get mad, or read it and change your mind. Most importantly, read it." (Chuck D, founding member of Public Enemy)

"A well-known tale of racial injustice given a fresh look.... Provocative, essential reading." (Kirkus)

"In my family, the Dodgers caused pain and disillusionment when they left Brooklyn. But what happened in Los Angeles is a second drama with its own measure of financial manipulation, political intrigue, and working-class heartache. Stealing Home takes on a whole new meaning in Eric Nusbaum's marvelous book." (David Maraniss, New York Times best-selling author of When Pride Still Mattered and Clemente)

Great book about LA history

Well written, well researched, brilliant and entertaining.

Worth a listen/read! Enjoy it! Go Dodgers!

Not really about baseball

Disappointed, very little of it had anything to do with baseball. Some of the stories were somewhat interesting but it’s just not what it seems like it’s going to be, even reading the information page

Great Read

Great read, not what I was expecting! The History of the city and Dodger stadium is fascinating.

Once Upon a Time at Dodger Stadium

Professional baseball: to love it and hate it is to know it. Nusbuam was unrelenting in his effort to examine the deepest roots of baseball, LA, and the lives forever changed by it. His scholarly approach, objectivity, and obsessive detail produced a baseball book like no other.

Go blue!!!!

Great history of a place I love. Very insightful. I recommend this read for Dodger fans.

The Dodgers and Chavez Ravine. Enlightening.

An honest look at the events that transpired that led to the building of Dodgers Stadium and how it affected the families who lived in the area and how they were treated. In depth and well written. The only problem I had was with the narrator. He simply mispronounced many names because he was putting a Spanish accent to some names and words that simply were not meant to be pronounced as such.

Baseball - Politics - History and more

If you are looking for a book about baseball only, this will not fill the need - I thought the book was about baseball but it was much more. I enjoy history and this book fills the need for the history of LA, Mexico, and some baseball.

Although the basis of the book appears to be about baseball, it is more about the politics that took place in and around Los Angelos leading up to the building of Dodger Stadium. All of this information is needed as an understanding but it felt more of a political history book than baseball.

I enjoyed the book but some of the deep-rooted political undertones started to annoy me.

There were times that I felt the author threw in names of Dodger players to fill a quota of baseball information.

Good Read

Would recommend to anyone who wants to know how the land at and around Dodger Stadium was purchased and the affect it had to the many families living in the community where it was constructed.

Incredible!

I absolutely loved this book. If you love baseball, history, politics, this book is for you. I absolutely loved every chapter.

Good story about Los Angeles, Eminent Domain, History

Well researched, well written. A great piece of history about so many things. Dodgers, los angeles, mexican heritage, racism, and more