A onetime baseball catcher confronts the murder of a McCarthyist politician at Yankee Stadium In 1953 America, McCarthyism is everywhere. Congressman Rex Harwood Simmons is among the leaders who single-mindedly hunt down suspected Communists; he even claims that Communism has infiltrated America's favorite pastime. But while watching a Yankee game one afternoon, he becomes a target. As the crowd cheers for a homerun, Simmons is shot dead in his seat.            The task of solving the crime falls to onetime ballplayer and Korean War veteran Russ Garrett, who collaborates with "Vicious Aloysius" Murphy, a Bronx homicide detective. The investigation won't be easy, since there are plenty of people with a motive to plug Simmons. Several clues point to a blacklisted intellectual--but he was driven to suicide years ago. And as Garrett hunts for the killer, a new conspiracy comes to light: a plot to murder Yankee star Mickey Mantle.