by Michael Ceraolo
Ring Lardner
You know me as the author of stories,
many of them about baseball
A popular game that I never wrote about
is trying to figure out real-life models for fictional characters,
so I want to clear this up once and for all:
Jack Keefe was not based on any one player
Though such a thing is frowned upon now,
I was friendly with a few ballplayers I covered:
Doc White and I wrote a few songs together,
and I considered Eddie Cicotte a friend,
which made the events of 1919 hard to swallow
I was already moving away from baseball
when The Great Betrayal occurred,
so it wasn’t a sudden disillusionment
but more the final straw that broke my fandom
Guy Harris White
I was a dentist,
so like anyone with any medical training
I was called Doc
I am proud of my five straight shutouts,
but glad I lived long enough to see Mr. Drysdale beat it
And I thought Ring’s and my “Gee, It’s a Wonderful Game”
was better than Von Tilzer and Norworth’s work,
but they had a catchier chorus so they’ve lasted longer
I think there’s room enough for both our songs
From Michael’s collection, Dugout Anthology