MWSA Review

James Elsener’s The Last Road Trip is a sad commentary on the inability of some professional athletes to make a life plan for their retirement. Fictional mediocre Kenneth “Stub” Rowe finds himself out of a job after his final season with the Cleveland Indians. He decides to take a road trip across America to see what he missed when flying at 30,000 feet to all the cities where he played Major League Baseball for sixteen years. In part he wants to visit old friends in the industry while visiting attractions he missed in the whirlwind of his career. At thirty-six, Stub also wants to find himself and discover skills for continuing his life without baseball. Instead, he finds that he is great at womanizing and drinking, but not reconnecting with his ex-wife and their two kids, or learning any new marketable skills.

Baseball aficionados will likely enjoy the book, but it’s not particularly suitable for young teens. The language and shallow sexual encounters will be off-putting to some adults as well.

Review by Betsy Beard (February 2023)

 

Author's Synopsis

Stub Rowe’s mediocre major league baseball career ended with a ground out to the second baseman.  He considered that to be the wimpiest out in baseball.

He had never been a star, but he was considered steady and reliable.  Some team always needed a third baseman with a little pop in his bat…until the years ran out on him. Now it was time to consider what to do with the rest of his life.

Stub had bounced around professional baseball for 16 years. He ran out the string with a couple of unremarkable years with the Cleveland Indians. 

He hadn’t given a lot of thought to retirement. Now it was here staring him in the face.  He wasn’t sure if he had any marketable skills. The years had changed his relationships with people and he began to wonder where he would fit in a life outside baseball.

His ex-wife and children seemed to be getting along fine without him.  He has a few other personal relationships that need some closure as well. 

Stub decides to drive across a country that he had mostly seen from 30,000 feet flying from city to city to play baseball.  He wanted to see sights that he missed and visit old friends along the way.  This would give him time to think about his future. 

He drives from Cleveland to Los Angeles with stops in-between to visit old friends and family or just to be a tourist.  He spends time with his sister and her family including the husband Stub can’t stand.  Then he visits his ex-wife and children who hardly know him.  

His spends time with a former teammate who is a born-again Christian with a picture post card family.  Then he meets up with another ex-teammate who has become a helpless alcoholic. These visits aren’t going exactly the way he thought they would.

Stub eventually reconnects with Katie Riley, a one-legged Iraq War veteran who works for the movie industry.  Things are getting exciting when he gets an emergency phone call from his sister Tina and must head back to the Midwest to deal with family issues and the need to find a real job.     

He had never envisioned himself becoming a baseball lifer and starting all over as a coach and manager in the low minor leagues.  It’s a life of low pay, long bus rides, cheap hotels and babysitting for rookie players. But, it maybe his only option. He starts his new career in baseball the same way he ended his last career – hitting ground balls to the second baseman.

Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle

Review Genre: Fiction—Literary Fiction

Number of Pages: 190

Word Count: 56,000