The 1898 Baseball Fe-As-Ko [Hardcover]

Randall Beth Platt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2000

In the third Fe-As-Ko, cowboy Royal Leckner, his wife E. M., and Leviticus and Lou, the mentally out-of-sorts owners of the Four Arrows Ranch, have lassoed themselves a struggling baseball team. They are depending on the team to save the ranch, but getting them ready for the big time makes breaking a bronco look like child’s play. In the course of a long winter’s training the team and its owners encounter obstacles such as E.M.’s conniving half-sister, her jailbird father, a past baseball scandal, and the team’s ruthless opponents. The team is scheduled to play the pennant-winning Boston Beaneaters in a game that will decide everyone’s futures.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cornball humor enlivens but crowds this fourth book in the "Fe-As-Ko" series, charting the continuing adventures of Royal Leckner, manager of the northeastern Oregon Four Arrows Ranch, and his intrepid wife, Elijah Marie. In this outing, Roy finds himself caught up in the ongoing battle between his wife, E.M., and her beautiful half-sister, Augusta. In the course of their competition, E.M. maneuvers Roy's employer, slow-witted ranch owner Levi, into trading his cattle for a down-and-out exhibition baseball team, the Bowery Bulldogs, who are on tour in Washington State. Faced with financial ruin, Roy has no choice but to engage a banned-for-life player, who happens to be the ranch's blacksmith, as coach to whip the team into competitive shape so they can earn back their investment. Though the plot has potential, it takes a lot of pages to get past Roy's self-conscious, first-person, vernacular storytelling. E.M. and her sibling are the most interesting characters in the book, but they only play supporting roles as foils for Roy and the men, and are generally brought out to relieve Roy's ponderous displays of country bromides and rustic malapropisms. Platt's knowledge of period baseball is spotty (home runs were not common in 1898 and not even officially sanctioned by all leagues), and her handling of period ranching is also shaky. Nevertheless, despite recurring inconsistencies, the novel has slapstick appeal and an underlying warmth. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Randall Beth Platt is the author of The Cornerstone, Honor Bright, The Likes of Me, and Out of a Forest Clearing. She lives in Gig Harbor, Washington.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Catbird Press; 1st edition (April 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0945774478
• ISBN-13: 978-0945774471
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,399,152 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cowpokes and ballplayers mix it up for a home run!, March 26, 2000

By 

MostlyFiction - See all my reviews

This review is from: The 1898 Baseball Fe-As-Ko (Hardcover)

It seems that the FDR writer is back wanting more Fe-As-Ko stories from cowpoke Royal Leckner.

This time it's 1897, Royal and E.M have been married about four years. And so have Leviticus and Lou(ella) Perrault, owners of the Four Arrows ranch. Royal is still foreman of the ranch and caretaker of its owner. As he reminds us, Leviticus and Lou(ella) Perrault are "short a hat size", but "nice and honest, which is better than smart and fox-like any day."

It's time to take the cattle to Portland for the annual sale, and Royal is bringing Leviticus along to teach him how "to sign on the dotted line". E.M. foresees trouble in Portland and decides she'd better go along as well. So the cattle get loaded and all are headed for the city. Except, Leviticus who has managed to walk onto the train, down the aisle and right back off - something's caught his eye. It shouldn't be a surprise that a long-time rock thrower like Leviticus would get fascinated by a base-ball. Once they get Levi back on the train, Lou(ella) says they are going to get themselves a base-ball in Portland.

As it turns out (and things do turn in Royal's life), the buyer isn't available when they go to sell the cattle, so it's declared a day off. E.M's off to buy hats and Royal goes shopping with Levi and Lou(ella). Innocently enough, Royal accepts baseball tickets for an expedition game from one of the local storekeepers. This probably wasn't the best place to take Leviticus for "he may only have a half mind, but the half he does have is damn hard to unset." Worse, Royal runs into E.M.'s half sister and full-time trouble, Augusta, who is also the owner of this Bowery Bulldogs. E.M. shows up and immediately takes exception to find Royal in the club house drinking champagne with Augusta. Knowing this isn't going anywhere right, Royal decides to take his new fishing pole and get out of town, leaving E.M. to sell the cattle.

Days later, E.M. shows up with a wagon overloaded with men passing the bottle, whooping, hollering and following out. These are not men Royal recognizes. Like Jack sent to town to sell a cow, but coming back with magical beans, it seems that Leviticus traded the herd of 1200 cattle for his very own baseball team, just as Lou(ella) said they'd have. Smart and fox-like Augusta had him "sign on the dotted line" when E.M. wasn't looking. And now it is up to the Leckner's to look for the giant beanstalk, despite winter coming, no cash, and ten extra mouths to feed. But E.M. is not without her resources; she has her father sitting in jail, the "seven vestal Burnbaums", daughters of Idlehours late banker, and Lou(ella's savant talent with numbers.

To give the benefit of hindsight to this rather nefarious situation, Platt has Royal Leckner tell his story years after the events while narrating to one of FDR's WPA depression writers. Platt dresses Royal's storytelling with a narration so colorful it's hard not to want to read every line out loud. It's a talented writer that can write a spellbinding story that hangs together right down to the funny bone. And Platt does this yet again in her third fe-as-ko, as she keep the plot moving, the bases loaded, and the pages turning until it all adds up to another home run for us, the readers of these fe-as-kos.

5.0 out of 5 stars A book worth reading out loud., May 6, 2000

By 

Tim Copeland (Walla Walla, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The 1898 Baseball Fe-As-Ko (Hardcover)

Right off the bat, I want you to know that this is a highly biased review.

First, Randi Platt is an old friend of mine, lost for years and then found again after her first Fe-As-Ko book hit the stands. We're such old friends that I know where "Leckner" and "Perrault" came from.

Second, I live in Walla Walla, Washington and if we didn't have a team like this in 1898, we sure did in 1973 when Kurt Russell (that's right - former Disney poster child, then the consummate cyber-soldier, Goldie's husband, etc.) played for the Walla Walla Padres. It was a third-rate farm club for the San Diego Padres, managed by a woman called Peppermint Patty - that alone tells you a lot about the team.

With that said, I loved the book. Problem is, I kept reading it aloud because its language is meant to be spoken. I have the same problem with Garrison Keilor's books.

It begs to be a movie and Russell should star in it. It would be a "Wild Wild West meets Major League".

Anyway, it's a very fun read and a story well-told. Thanks for it, Randi.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars hi. good book, March 31, 2000

By 

"melzy" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The 1898 Baseball Fe-As-Ko (Hardcover)

um. i think this book is good. um, im gonna use it for my next book to read in class. If is a good book to read. Um, i like baseball. GO METS!