Homestand Audiobook By Will Bardenwerper cover art

Homestand

Small Town Baseball and the Fight for the Soul of America

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Homestand

By: Will Bardenwerper
Narrated by: Dan Bittner
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A 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.

"Bardenwerper finds hope in the people and community around a former minor league baseball team.”—Washington Post

"Will reveal more about the prospects for America than 100 news stories about politics, and will be a lot more fun.”—James Fallows, bestselling co-author of Our Towns: A 100,000-Mile Journey into the Heart of America

What 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?

Batavia, 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.

With 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 Homestand exposes the beating heart of small town America, friends and neighbors coming together as the crack of the bat echoes in the summer twilight.

©2025 Will Bardenwerper (P)2025 Random House Audio Americas Art & Literature Baseball & Softball Journalists, Editors & Publishers Sociology State & Local United States Sports Heartfelt Hockey

Critic reviews

“[Bardenwerper] recounts what was lost in Batavia when minor-league baseball left town—and what was found when a new squad bearing the old name was established in its place.... This is a story about sporting competition, but really it is a tale about community.”—Wall Street Journal

“A romantic look at the magic of small-town baseball.... In Homestand, journalist Will Bardenwerper finds hope in the people and community around a former minor league baseball team.”—Washington Post

“An informative, often emotional account of small-town baseball and 'the special group of people' on the field, behind the scenes, and in the stands 'who help keep it alive one summer at a time.'”—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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I loved how the author described how baseball has taken the small town atmosphere out of the game. Yes, I’ll still love and watch my Braves and A’s, but in the back of my mind I’ll remember how my beloved game is only a big business.

Hit the nail on the head

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Ponderous repetition of his assessment that MLB is ruining small town America. His anticapitalist attitude.

The author’s hatred of MLB leadership

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Overall enjoyable with good info about the minors but does repeat itself after a bit. Worth a credit but I did listen to it at 2x for part of it.

Some good nuggets but a little repetitive

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As a fan of baseball, the story was compelling and accurate. But the narration of the story was perfect. I've turned off a lot of stories because of the "reading" of the book. This one was like I was sitting in the room with the author.

Great topic, Perfect narration

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I wish there were a couple more books about baseball and Americana like this one. Really took me back to my high school and collegiate baseball time.

Really enjoyed the Americana and baseball in this one

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Much of this book is an enjoyable amble through a season of the Batavia (NY) Muckdogs baseball season. Having lost a minor league franchise, the Muckdogs is now a team of college players in a summer league. The author chronicles many colorful local characters who frequent the game as well as life in small town upstate New York. The pace of the book is well done and it ambles along, much like a baseball game.

Unfortunately, the author spoils the book with his constant rants about Major League Baseball eliminating minor league franchises and about "corporate greed" in general. I don't mind the author focusing on this at the beginning, as it is a key to understanding the state of baseball in Batavia and other towns. In fact, I tend to agree with him on his MLB rant. The problem is that he cannot let it go, and he brings it up constantly, often when it detracts from the story.

Instead of continuing the rant, the author could have gone more in depth about the interesting characters who come to games, or about the team. There is some of that, but there could have been more. As it is, the book becomes like listening to a friend or relative who sits at the bar telling an interesting story, but always ends up in the same place. The book is pretty good. It could have been really good.

The narration is excellent.

A Good Story a Bit Spoiled

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- The new must read book for baseball romantics or anyone looking to understand or remember what life was like in small town America
- Very well written with a great ability to succinctly present some moderately complex topics
- Don’t need to be a baseball fan to enjoy, narrative of the town, the characters, and the authors personal story are more than enough to get you hooked
- Powerful nostalgia piece for anyone who grew up going to minor league baseball games
- Wonderful micro stories within the book on how people navigate life and find community

Masterpiece - Baseball romanticism meets small town America - Field of Dreams Power

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This book starts very slowly and was a gripes. It was not as depressing as East of Eden but was walking on that path. It did get better as it progressed with a few shining passages. Gripefest not gripes

Not Bull Durham nor The Circus of Baseball

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