Steve Spoerl

Sut Mccaslin: a Baseball Romance Steve Spoerl

Sut McCaslin, a Baseball Romance tells the story of a major league baseball player in the early 'Fifties. Sut is a reserve outfielder on the Washington Senators, the worst team in baseball. From Opening Day through midseason Sut and his teammates experience the joys and pains of the game until one night in St. Louis that transforms his life. Sut's story is not only baseball. Strains of racism and McCarthyism run strongly through the novel, along with many levels of inquiry into the nature and meaning of the game itself. The story is tilted somewhat more toward allegory than realism, but remains firmly rooted in its time. Written in a casual, engaging style, with vivid and memorable characterizations, Sut McCaslin is both entertaining nostalgia and a creative retelling of the era. Following generally the pattern established by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, the novel re-enacts the mythic journey of the hero through mid-century America. Not every game is won nor every battle lost.