It's the 19th century and the basepaths are alive with legendary ball players such as John McGraw and Honus Wagner. Cy Young is on the mound, and King Saturday is at bat. The "kranks" are rooting for action, and they're getting plenty of it. "The Cleveland Indian" brings to life the bawdy, often sinister, final days of the Gay Nineties. Against this panorama, author Salisbutry fields an authentic 1897 Cleveland Spiders line-up, a team as colorful as its era. King Saturday, freely modeled on real-life baseball legend Sockalexis, the Native American outfielder who gave the Cleveland ball club its name, is a con man, a brawler, a hero, a schemer, a murderer, and possessor of "the most talent any baseball man ever saw."
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The 1897 Cleveland Spiders were a talented baseball team, and Salisbury's vividly rendered first novel captures the players, the memories surrounding them and the American public's burgeoning obsession with baseball at the turn of the century. Salisbury focuses on the fictional relationship between narrator Henry Harrison--the team's lawyer and a self-described "Krank," as fans were called in those days--and the charismatic King Saturday, the club's raucous, unpredictable and doomed American Indian superstar. Modeled after Lou Sockalexis--considered the first Native American major-leaguer and a real star for the Spiders in 1897 (you can look it up)--Saturday is rendered as a magisterial but unknowable figure of tremendous physical skills and enigmatic motivations. The character of 19th-century baseball--the aggressive tactics, hard-drinking players and pervasive gambling--is wonderfully depicted, as are the political tensions and social strictures of the period. Harrison's earnest, crisp narrative voice is appealing. There are some flaws: certain sections--Harrison following Saturday to the steaming jungles of Cuba, for example--seem almost a parody of the adventure novel. It's also unfortunate that we get to know the extraordinary King Saturday only through his schemes and his awesome deeds, and never through the articulation of his inner life.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
A Penobscot Indian with a terrific arm and flexible morality takes Cleveland's baseball team briefly to the top of the league in the 1890's. The salaries were a tiny fraction of today's, and Cleveland was in the National League, but even then there were gifted players who gambled and lawyers who would rather sit in the grandstands than in a courtroom. Henry Harrison is among the latter, a well- born but impoverished Ivy League graduate dazzled by the throwing arm, hitting skills, and romantic talents of Louis King Phillip Saturday, a half-ugly half-Indian from Maine. Saturday is signed by the Cleveland Spiders, who also hire Harrison as their lawyer. Harrison's primary duty is to keep an eye on his wild friend--an assignment that introduces him to the seamier side of the Cuyahoga River. It does not take Harrison very long to discover that Saturday sees nothing wrong with betting on baseball, including his own games, and Henry finds himself willingly holding the bag and becoming Saturday's business partner. Saturday's such a good player and such a good gambler that the bag begins to fill up fast, and Harrison's ambition to own his very own professional team begins to seem possible. Another similarity to today's sport: worshipful women. In addition to managing the money, Harrison must keep Saturday's admirers in order. Alas, Harrison himself fancies at least one of the ladies. When the glorious season with the Spiders spectacularly ends, Saturday, whose gambling has become an open secret, must take it on the lam to Cuba, Mexico, and Colorado. Standard Oil, of all things, figures into the action at every turn. Salisbury (the nonfictional The Answer is Baseball, 1989) offers brisk fun for the Bart Giamattis of this world. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Hidden Gem From A Small Publishing House,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Cleveland Indian: The Legend of King Saturday (Hardcover)
This is a truly appealling adventure, right out of the Doctorow/Carr tradition. For those who are fans ("kranks" in the lingo of the late-1800's), this is a wonderful tale of a spectacular, mysterious ballplayer (an American Indian) and the callow lawyer he befriends. Rich in local color and lore, this novel leads a tangled trail from Cleveland to New York, Boston, San Juan Hill, Mexico, and, finally, the silver mines of Colorado...with the mysterious minions of Standard Oil thrown in for good measure. A really good read from beginning to end.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fictional grand slam,
By
This review is from: The Cleveland Indian: The Legend of King Saturday (Paperback)
Luke Salisbury has written a big, flavorful novel about baseball and life. The author doesn't take a false step in crafting the saga of King Saturday. Salisbury has aimed for the fences with this book, and Black Heron Press deserves a standing ovation for bringing it back into print.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's a great book of historical fiction,
By
This review is from: The Cleveland Indian: The Legend of King Saturday (Paperback)
The Cleveland Indian: The Legend of King Saturday is a remarkable book of astute detail and elegant prose. The main character King Saturday is based upon, Louis Sockalexis, a Penobscot Indian from Maine, who was one of the greatest college baseball stars of the 1890s. What Salisbury gives us with King Saturday is a remarkable presentation of a full-tilted, hard living character. Saturday's dream is to one day own a baseball team and he will spare no ethics or morality to do so. An incredible admired athlete, as well as a drinker and ladies man, Saturday starts to throw games and bet against the Indians so that he may earn enough to achieve his goal.
As evil as King Saturday could be, author Luke Salisbury manages to create him as a sympathetic, likeable character. The narrator Henry Harrison (lawyer for the Cleveland Spiders) worships the King and is the only man Saturday trusts. Harrison, naïve in the same way Fitzgerald's Nick Carraway is, gets a cruel lesson about life as everything he loves including women, baseball, and friends get taken from him in one way or another. Henry loves Saturday, questions him, uncovers information about him, and because of various events also loathes him. In the end Henry stays loyal to him and that is the essence and hook of the story. As a fan of baseball I appreciated the novel, yet baseball is not the main focus of The Cleveland Indian. The main focus is the relationships between the characters woven within the historical era of the setting. One could know very little about the game of baseball and still get a lot out of this novel. I found it very interesting to be able to look up the old time player's information and match the facts with the fiction, thus enhancing the background of the tale. As a writer Luke Salisbury is remarkably efficient with the developing plot, which reads with ease and without labor. His attention to details about the various settings and locations of the novel is refreshing and exciting. The historical facts were informative but not shoved down the reader's throat thus not interfering with the flow of the book. Teams, fields and players which no longer exist are brought to life. Salisbury's development of his characters is strength of the book. Each character is vibrant, real and the motivations of their actions are also very real and believable. Writing in a first person point of view this isn't always easy to achieve yet Salisbury manages to do it. This clarity allows the plot to advance in a very enjoyable way as I found myself charging through the novel to see how it would all unfold. My only issues with the novel are that occasionally the author allows us to break from the narrative to tell us background information. For example, when telling us about Marty Bergen, the Boston catcher, the narrator tells us he would later chops up his family with an ax. I googled it, and it was true, but impossible to be known by the Henry Harrison. From a writing perspective is this allowed? For me, I found the details fascinating and not intrusive with any major part of the story but for other readers it may be a distraction. The only distraction I found as a reader was that some of the descriptions of King Saturday, especially his hair, were repetitive yet, The Cleveland Indian: The Legend of King Saturday is still a great read and highly recommended. .
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