Trolley Dodgers by Jeff Stanger Young adult 225 pages Writers' Collective September 2005 Hardcover     The premise seems preposterous at first. The Los Angeles Dodgers are for sale, and media tycoon Roland Green is making a bid for the team. Not if Andy Bennett can help it, though. Bennett, a reporter, wants his town of Bloomington, Indiana, to buy the Dodgers, with everybody pitching in financially, much like the city of Green Bay did to own the Packers. And so begins Jeff Stanger’s enjoyable yarn about a small town and the big time world of Major League Baseball. Stanger knows the rhythms and cadences of small-town life, and he sets the scenes perfectly. At first, many of the rural townspeople are reluctant to embrace the idea of the Dodgers in Bloomington because of their fear of losing their land. Bloomington being a progressive college town, there are myriad activists for the various causes. In a laugh-out-loud set piece, Stanger describes a clash between small-town America and its love of pageantry and the zeal of committed activists that renders the Fourth of July parade into a food fight. The characters in this novel are clearly etched with at least one idiosyncrasy per person. There is the Wolf, a hard-charging lawyer opposed to Bennett and his group. There is Maple the activist, who undergoes a metamorphosis when she encounters a Mary Kay Cosmetics saleswoman. And then there is Frank Lopilato - “Klondike” to his friends - the hapless husband of the intrepid Bonnie and owner of a motel. Stanger brings these characters together in a number of funny incidents that keep the story moving and the reader engrossed. As the townspeople buy into Bennett’s idea, the book’s premise does not seem so preposterous any more. Stanger makes a convincing case for Major League Baseball to consider Bloomington’s bid seriously, and the quest gathers steam in every chapter. The climax is both satisfying and believable, and we are left with a bucolic scene of good friends watching a baseball game in a scenic ballpark. Stanger weaves an engrossing tale that is equal parts dreamy and plausible.     web reviews   Ram Subramanian/2005 for curled up with a good kid's book   For grown-up fiction, nonfiction and speculative fiction book reviews, visit our sister site Curled Up With a Good Book (www.curledup.com)