LAST MAN OUT

It's 1946 and sportswriter Joe Tinker (The Plot to Kill Jackie Robinson, 1992) is looking froward to spring training and the appearance of Brooklyn Dodger phenom Harvey Tippen when—just before the camp opens—Harvey becomes suspect #1 in the death of post-deb and full-time party girl Gloria Manley, who was maliciously stringing the young rube along—and was last seen humiliating him at a nightclub. Did Harvey kill her and her Spanish-speaking maid Maria? Tinker encroaches on the territory of both the cops and the crime reporters as he interviews the other partygoers on that fateful night, and their gossip reveals a cruel practical joke set up by Gloria. Before long, two more are dead, and the suspicion is that the chief target was the maid, not Gloria. There'll be more visits to the Stork Club, El Morocco, etc., before Tinker ties in the murders with a strong-arm fascist sympathizer who decimated the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during the war. Not much baseball, but a clear depiction of post-traumatic stress syndrome (or ``battle fatigue,'' as it was called in the 40's), plus a sharp look at vintage club-and-sybarite scene.