HUNTING A DETROIT TIGER

The Detroit papers all say that journeyman infielder Mickey Rawlings shot union organizer Emmett Siever in self-defense during a rally in Fraternity Hall. But although Mickey was on the scene, he doesn't know anything about the shooting--except that he didn't do it, and that the revolver found in Siever's hand was a plant. But ""personnel coordinator"" Hub Donner, brought in by the American League to bust the struggling players' union, decides that the notoriety has made Mickey's signature just the one he needs over a series of articles condemning the union, and he puts major-league screws on him when Mickey won't play ball--floating rumors about Mickey's anti-union sympathies that have his new teammates on the Tigers freezing him out, and the Wobblies who organized the rally threatening revenge unless he delivers them a better candidate for Siever's killing. Mickey's left with just three questions: How will he survive the 1920 season with the front office and his teammates both at his throat? Why isn't Siever's daughter Constance more distraught at her father's death? And will the Tigers, led by that inimitable sourpuss Ty Cobb, ever climb out of last place? Mickey's fourth outing (Murder at Wrigley Field, 1996, etc.) may be his best nine innings. The union-busting makes the mystery as timely as Donald Fehr, even though all the games are played on real grass.