Posted By:
Frank WakefieldYes, I've read the Lardner book.
Without any reservation, here's a list...
#1. The Celebrant, by Eric Rolfe Greenberg. Before I'd read this, I could not believe that there was a book out there better than If I Never Get Back... better than Bang The Drum Slowly... or The Natural. There is. This is the One. Go back in time and meet Christy Mathewson. Read this book and feel like you're watching McGraw's Giants... I can smell the hotdogs, and the beer, just typing about it.
#2. If I Never Get Back, by Darryl Brock. This was my #1 until I'd read The Celebrant. Old Baseball, the Redlegs, the beginnings of professional baseball.
#3. Bang The Drum Slowly, by Mark Harris. "From here on in I rag nobody." A good book. A great baseball book. And a fine baseball movie. I heard Mr. Harris speak in the mid 70s, a nice man.
#4. You Know Me Al, by Ring Lardner, Jr. A pretty good baseball book, by a great writer. I read this after Bang the Drum Slowly, but before #1 and #2 up there.
#5. The Natural, by Bernard Malamud. A 1952 book that is slightly outshown today by the fine 1984 movie. I have a Roy Hobbs card somewhere in my pile of stuff. And I have a prop scorecard from the movie. A good book. But not as good as The Celebrant.
I can't see how anyone who's read The Celebrant could list it anywhere but first.