Called Out: A novel of base ball and America in 1908 - Paperback

by Floyd Sullivan (Author)

Donald G. Evans, Founding Director, Chicago Literary Hall of Fame: "Riveting historical fiction set during a seminal time....A precise and loving re-creation."

As 1907 becomes 1908, National Base Ball League President Harry Pulliam suspects that the owner of the New York Giants has hired detectives to spy on him and his lover, Ted Russell, with the goal of blackmailing him. The pressure tests the strength of his relationship and his ability to administer his league duties.

Lenore Caylor, Pulliam's new stenographer, falls in love with him and becomes his staunchest champion as he fights to preserve the honor of professional base ball and the National League. Near the end of the season, one of the most bizarre in base ball history, controversial, game-changing calls result in violent protests, riots, and death. The survival of the national pastime hangs in the balance, as do Pulliam's relationships with Ted and Lenore-and, indeed, his own life.

Donald G. Evans, Founding Director, Chicago Literary Hall of Fame; author, Good Money After Bad; editor, Cubbie Blues: 100 Years of Waiting Till Next Year: "Sullivan pits baseball's noble ambassadors against the greedy and the intolerant. In his hands, baseball's intrigue is not only games won and lost, but also its ability to confront change and overcome hatred."

Patrick Creevy, author, Ryan's Woods, Tyrus, and Lake Shore Drive: "With the multiplex references that its title suggests, Called Out connects in a human oneness the world of 1908 with that of our own time. And it does so, first page to last, with an ever-intense narrative drive."

Jimmy Greenfield, author, 100 Things Cubs Fans Should Know & Do Before they Die: "Floyd is a great baseball fan and an even better writer. He constantly finds new ways to write that blend a vast knowledge, endless curiosity and sharp wit."

Author Biography

Floyd Sullivan was born in Chicago and grew up in Oak Park, Illinois. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a degree in history. He has written one non-fiction book, Waiting for the Cubs, and edited a collection of essays titled Old Comiskey Park. He blogs about baseball at Waiting4Cubs on ChicagoNow.com. He works as a freelance writer and photographer in Chicago, where he lives with his wife.

Barbara Gregorich, author, She's on First and Women at Play "I enjoyed learning more about both [Harry Pulliam], his secretary, Lenore Caylor, and the various team owners. I particularly enjoyed the author's descriptions of bugs-baseball fanatics. Sullivan does an excellent job of capturing the slang of the times and depicting the violence the bugs inflicted on opposing players. And what made me laugh with delight was each and every time a character in the book complained about the Chicago Cubs always winning the World Series.

"...I cared about the characters in the story, and I cared about their personal outcomes as well as the outcomes for major league baseball. Called Out is a a book I'm glad I read, and I recommend it to others as an enjoyable way to learn about an important part of baseball history-and the more important issue of how to people should behave toward one another."

Patrick T. Reardon, author; Pulitzer Prize winner; National Book Award nominee: "Sullivan...has done a crackerjack job of weaving together many strands to provide a nuanced look at base ball and at America of more than a century ago.

"Called Out is a baseball book in which, ironically, few games are described. However, there is one particular game to which Sullivan devotes 30 pages-and then another 40 pages to its aftermath.

"It's also a book about a quirky love story centering on the novel's two major characters, Lenore Caylor and Harry Pulliam-a love story that's the furthest thing from a romance novel, especially when you consider that one of the two is gay.

"It's the story of a hero, Pulliam, clashing again and again with the entrenched powers-that-be of his sport-and losing. A tragic story. And, yet, as we know from the subsequent history of base ball, he was ultimately victorious."