Hunting a Detroit Tiger

It is early spring, 1920. Four million Americans are out on strike - miners, mill hands, railroad workers, even policemen. United States Attorney General Mitchell Palmer claims to have evidence that Reds, Wobblies, anarchists, foreigners, communists and unionists are about to attempt a takeover of the U.S. government. The Great Red Scare has begun. And, somehow, a utility infielder for the Detroit Tigers named Mickey Rawlings has gotten himself smack in the middle of the whole mess... War Hero Kills Bolshevik. It begins with a four-word headline in the morning edition of the Detroit Journal. Four words, stark and accusing - and three of them wrong. Mickey isn't a hero, he didn't kill anyone, and the victim wasn't a Bolshevik. All Mickey wanted was a .250 batting average, a lot of stolen bases, and a regular place in the Tigers' lineup. Until Emmett Siever, and old-time baseball player trying to organize a players' union, is killed at a meeting of the Industrial Workers of the World. Suddenly, the story goes out that Mickey did the dirty deed in self-defense. Now the Wobblies want Siever's murder avenged; Mickey's teammates on the Tigers - including Dutch Leonard and Ty Cobb - think Mickey is trying to sabotage the players' union; and baseball owners are putting the heat on Mickey to speak out publicly against the unions. Caught in a squeeze play while trying to find out who really killed Emmett Siever is fast turning Mickey into one unpopular guy - almost as unpopular as the irascible Ty Cobb.

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