The Rio Loja ringmaster

Richard Dixon, pitcher, star of the Cincinnati Brewmaster pennant drive, a world series ago, a household word in the U.S.A., now the pivot of a scrub league Mexican team from San Lorenzo, sweating out a no-hitter in the seedy town of Rio Loja. While he can perhaps be forgiven for summoning up images of the faded glory of Aztec "ringmasters," just how this particular American hero strayed so far from the scenes of his own glory is a matter he must explore if he is to survive. San Lorenzo and Cincinnati form two sides of a world Dick Dixon is having an increasing amount of trouble holding together. Confronted with the ruins of a marriage, the betrayal of friendship, and the prespect of a new life away from all the baseball meatphors by which he's lived, Dick must make a final effort to get right with his past, and his recollection of that past--from ten-year-old Dick Dixon searching for his father in the deserted bleachers of Sportsman's Park to thirty-year-old Dick Dixon throwing his last pitch in the ninth inning of the seventh game of the World Series--composes a dazzling, funny, and richly evocative narrative journey.