The Cleveland Indian

It's the end of the 19th century and the basepaths are alive with legendary players such as John McGraw and Honus Wagner. Cy Young is on the mound and King Saturday (the Cleveland Indian) is at bat. The "kranks," or fans, are rooting for action. "The Cleveland Indian" brings to life the bawdy, often sinister, final days of the Gay Nineties. Against this panorama, the author fields an authentic 1897 Cleveland Spiders lineup, a team as colorful as its era. King Saturday, modeled on real-life baseball legend Sockalexis, the Indian outfielder who gave the Cleveland ball club its name, is a con man, a drunk, a brawler, a hero, a schemer, a murderer, and possessor of "the most talent any baseball man ever saw."

Luke Salisbury Luke Salisbury is the author of The Answer Is Baseball and three works of fiction: The Cleveland Indian, Blue Eden, and Hollywood & Sunset, which was selected as Book of the Year by Online Review of Books & Current Affairs; won Best Historical Fiction 2006 from USA Book News; and was a finalist for ForeWord Magazine's Book of the Year for General Fiction.