Baseball Fiction

[Taras Bulba]

In the regular Saturday "Five Best" feature in the WSJ, Nicholas Dawidoff, author of the Moe Berg book lists his five favorite baseball works of fiction.  They are:

1. "You Know Me Al" by Ring Lardner.

2. "The Natural" by Bernard Malamud.

3. "The Universal Baseball Association, Inc." by J. Henry Waugh.

4. "The Greatest Slump of All Time" by David Carkeet.

5. "The Southpaw" by Mark Harris.

[JimR]

I have read all but #4. Shoeless Joe was better than Universal, imo.

[Taras Bulba]

I have read all but #4. Shoeless Joe was better than Universal, imo.

I'd be interested in your top five.

[Bench]

I have to admit that I've read little baseball fiction. The vast majority of baseball books I read are histories and I haven't heard of many of the books on that list. I think the only baseball fiction I've read is The Natural, Shoeless Joe and For Love of the Game. I am very interested in seeing people's baseball fiction recommendations.

[HudsonHawk]

I have read all but #4. Shoeless Joe was better than Universal, imo.

I liked Shoeless Joe.  I also read Kinsella's The Iowa Baseball Confederacy, but was underwhelmed. 

[toddthebod]

My favorite "baseball" fiction book of all time is Summerland by Michael Chabon, although you could easily argue that the book is not a baseball book per se. 

[Arky Vaughan]

Eric Rolfe Greenberg's The Celebrant is a great read.