Book Review: The Death Row All Stars by Howard Kazanjian and Chris Enss

Wyoming is anything but a hotbed for baseball. There have been only 14 major leaguers from the state and only one minor league team in the state since WWII (Casper Rockies/Ghosts 2001-11). However, that does not mean the state is void of good baseball players, teams, and stories. The Death Row All Stars: A Story of Baseball, Corruption, and Murder by Howard Kazanjian and Chris Enss tells the story of a baseball team in Wyoming in 1911 made up of players in the state's penitentiary, many of them who committed hanious crimes. The book talks about corruption and murder, but baseball's role in the story is surprisingly minimal.

Cover of The Death Row All Stars
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What was most annoying about the lack of baseball was that the Wyoming State Penitentiary team was not the main focus of the book. The Death Row All Stars is a short book at only 156 pages, with the last 30 being the notes, bibliography, and index. So, I was not expecting the book to be filled with detail and intently describe specific moments. But I did expect the book to focus on the team and it's players, not just management and one player. The main focus was on four characters: Warden Felix Alston, former Warden Otto Gramm, team manager George Saban, and right fielder Joseph Seng. The team was only used as a way to connect all four. While the story of Seng was interesting, the story of Alston, Gramm, and Saban runs dry at the end. However, with that being said, I understand why the story did not revolve around the team: their story was not long enough and detailed enough to carry it for the length of a book.

One of the reasons the books disappoints is not only its lack of information on the team, but also the team's players. Other than Seng, very little is given about the other players on the team. The reader is given the bare minimum on the background of these players. While there may be little information on some of the players, I find it hard to believe that all the players either had a boring background or little information in their backgrounds.

I had high hopes for The Death Row All Stars and when I finished the small paperback, I was throughly disappointed. I was reading the story for the story of the baseball team at the State Penitentiary, not about the lives of people around the story. The Death Row All Stars is a misleading title to a book not really about baseball.