The Kansas City Cowboys
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Seventeen-year-old Silver King dreams of becoming a working cowboy. His mother, however, has pushed him to be a baseball player -- and King certainly has the arm to be a star pitcher. When the National League forms a team in Kansas City in 1886, both mother and son get their wishes. King is signed to pitch for the fledgling team -- the Kansas City Cowboys -- and the rookie's teammates will include a Rhode Island shortstop who pretends to be the son of a well-known Kansas lawman; a black cowboy working at a meat-packing plant who is passes off as a Cherokee Indian to get around professional baseball's agreement not to play blacks against whites; and two catchers who take King under their wing: an overweight, hard-drinking baseball veteran and a journeyman minor-leaguer who prefers pushing cattle and chasing after gold. The summer will teach Silver King what it takes to be a baseball Cowboy and a working cowboy. And the Kansas City Cowboys and their rowdy fans will show the world just how Western things can get on a baseball diamond.