Kind of amazed this book hasn't been chosen. This is not only a great American classic but also one that doesn't appear at all frequently on PBS. For anyone interested in general American realities circa 1910-1915 this book is kind of necessary. Nothing gross, nothing shocking, but indeed something different from what we've come to expect from American pro sports since that time.
Ring Lardner was a young Midwestern sportswriter who moved to New York with his family around 1910 to get into the center of the action. He knew all the professional athletes of the day, a day unlike today, a day in which pro players just about earned enough to stay alive. And produced a number of droll characters about whom Lardner wrote a long series of very successful short stories. This book, "You Know Me, Al," is a reproduction of his most famous and most successful book of such stories. Its deadpan humor never fails to bring a laugh.
Ring Lardner was a young Midwestern sportswriter who moved to New York with his family around 1910 to get into the center of the action. He knew all the professional athletes of the day, a day unlike today, a day in which pro players just about earned enough to stay alive. And produced a number of droll characters about whom Lardner wrote a long series of very successful short stories. This book, "You Know Me, Al," is a reproduction of his most famous and most successful book of such stories. Its deadpan humor never fails to bring a laugh.
