[FrankWakefield]

Alright,

As I read along, I see I forgot to mention Mr. Nemec's books, The Beer And Whiskey League and his encyclopedia on 19th century ball. Kevin is right about those.

I REALLY enjoyed October 1964, but I'm such a biased Cardinals fan that I didn't mention it initially.

Alibi Ike. David up there mentions Ring Lardner. The guys who wrote about baseball for the first 30 years of the 20th century were MASTER WORD SMITHS. A way to get a glimpse of this would be to read Ring Lardner. I suggest You Know Me Al as a starting point. It's funny! It's amazing, and it's educational. Alibi Ike is a joy in movie form. It's dated, but I really enjoy it. Joe E Brown stars. William Frawley plays the manager. Frawley was Fred Mertz in the old I Love Lucy shows, he was a huge baseball fan, he had a clause in his contract with I Love Lucy that allowed him to not have to show up at the studio to work on the show if the Yankees were in the World Series. And in the 1950's the Yankees were in it quite often. That's why Fred Mertz is occasionally absent from the script. But I digress, for those of you wanting to read fiction, read The Celebrant first, then find a Ring Lardner book. Hopefully it's You Know Me Al.

And I agree with Huck, above, about The Politics of Glory. I think the original version of that is best. Think about wondering how hot dogs and sausage is made, and what's in it. Then imagine that approach to how a HOF ball player got in. It's a bit ugly sometimes. As a Cardinals fan I'm a bit hurt over how is seems Frankie Frisch (great, smart ballplayer) put his finger on the scales, maybe, as some old ballplayers were considered or reconsidered.