Meet the Arkansas Reds, the oddest, craziest, wildest bunch of sluggers ever to step out of a dugout. The lineup consists of an ex-con first baseman named Hog, a couple of real Reds on loan from Castro, some wild Indians, young bucks on the way up and worn-out old-timers on the way down, a woman, a pitcher named Genghis Mohammad, Jr., and a lecherous knuckleballer, all led by a one-armed Marxist and ex-major leaguer named Lefty. Hog chronicles a season with the Reds as they travel from one seedy southern ballpark to another, always one step ahead of the small-town sheriffs and right-wing evangelists who think the Reds are an insult to “America’s game.” It is a ragtag bunch if there ever was one, but as Hog says, baseball is “easier than stealing—and sometimes—when the wind’s right, and your blood’s jumping and you got your eye on a hard one coming in fast—almost as exciting.”