A Season with Mom by Katie Russell Newland

“Love, Loss, and the Ultimate Baseball Adventure” is the subtitle of a forthcoming book named A SEASON WITH MOM by Katie Russell Newland.  Since it is 2021’s opening day (“Go, Cubbies!”), it seemed like a good time to review this memoir filled with the travels and reflections from Newland’s visits to all 30 Major League Baseball Parks during the 2015 season. She undertook the trip in homage to her mother who had died from cancer a few years earlier. Here is what Newland (herself a cancer survivor) has to say regarding this book about baseball and how it’s “also a love story. … of a mother and daughter and our passion for the Chicago Cubs, the perennial underdog. …of the fans and communities in which they reside. … of the pauses in life that give us an opportunity to self-reflect and to cultivate self-awareness – an opportunity to BE. …” At each park, Newland, often joined by a friend, shares some learning like commenting on “… the beauty of a new baseball season. Each year, you have a chance to start over, to be better, to do something different.” Filled with insights crafted as poignant letters to her Mom, Newland’s A SEASON WITH MOM is touching, comforting, and inspiring; a book to savor -- visit one ball park a day or a week or an hour.