Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
A couple of weeks ago I visited a local shop that purportedly sold comics and baseball cards. Alas, I learned that was not the case. The owner told me there was no real business for cards over the past several years. I would say that that’s a shame but the reality is there have been […]
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Mr. Tiger passed away Monday at the age of 85. Kaline, who made his debut with the team in 1953 at the age of 18 without ever having spent a day in the minors, was an 18-time All-Star, a 10-time Gold Glove recipient, a batting champion at the age of 20, and was elected to […]
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The “Toy Cannon” passed away yesterday at the age of 78. A three-time All-Star standing just 5’9″, Wynn averaged 25 home runs a season over his 15-year career, spent mostly with the Houston Astros (nee Colt .45s). He also played for the Dodgers, Braves, Yankees, and Brewers. He published his memoirs via McFarland in 2010 […]
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If ever there were a ballpark designed to assist a player, that would be the Los Angeles Coliseum, the Dodgers’ first home after the abandoned Brooklyn for Wally Moon. From the NY Times‘ obituary by Richard Goldstein: Its dimensions were bizarrely suited for baseball. The wall behind right-center field was some 440 feet from home […]
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Since I posted the first of these last Thursday, which is known on social media as a time of reflection, I thought to make it a regular thing under this rubric. As a reminder, I highly recommend Pocket as a way to hold onto links you come that you want to keep. Unlike bookmarks, Pocket […]
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As you probably know, there’s a podcast component to this blog on which I chat with authors, artists, filmmakers, etc. I sometimes get first-timers who reach out to me because they may not have the cachet to get “real media” attention. I know I went through that with 501 Baseball Books. Just about every author […]
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Well, that was relatively easy. The Boston Red Sox are your new World Series Champions! As a newspaper buff, I always like to see how the local press covers such high-profile sports events. Frequently, tabloid publications employ “wraps,” using the entire front and back page for one large photo, like these from the Boston Herald. […]
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Thanks to KoolKat_1960, who suggested this as one of the classic baseball vidgame adverts following yesterday’s post on the subject: Which led me to a few more, featuring Dustin Pedroia, that should go into whatever Baseball (Video Game) Hall of Fame there might be (or should be, if such an entity does not yet exist).
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Author appearance: David King, author of Ross Youngs: In Search of a San Antonio Baseball Legend (TX) (Sports History), will sign copies of his book tomorrow (Aug. 10) from 2-4 p.m. Saturday at Barnes and Noble at The Shops at La Cantera, San Antonio. The book traces the career of the Hall of Famer, who […]
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Literary birthday greetings: 1895 – Babe Ruth, outfielder; All-Star, Hall of Famer (d. 1948) Previous Babe Ruth birthday entry. Lest we forget: 2007 – Lew Burdette, pitcher; All-Star (b. 1926) Lew Burdette of the Braves, by Gene Schoor, Putnam, 1960. Also on this date: 1934: New York sportswriter and broadcaster Ford Frick is named the […]
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Literary birthday greetings: Poor Feb. 1. It has a tough act act to follow with Jan. 31, which celebrates the arrival of such legends Jackie Robinson, Ernie Banks, and Nolan Ryan, who, between the three of them, have been the subjects of scores of books. Turns out there are no players who were born on […]
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Aside from his distinguishing hair style (or lack thereof), Kevin Youkilis is know for having one of the most unique batting stances in the history of the game. Or at least he did. Seems he’s going to tinker with it a bit for his new Yankees team, much to the chagrin of the personality known […]
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♦ One of my neo-favorites books have been the Freaknomics series. Their blog included this item about the eternal question (well, eternal since 1903, with the occasional break), “Does the best team win the World Series?” By teh way, Freakonomics co-author Stephen J. Dubner contributed an essay about everybody’s favorite comeback kid, Adam Greenberg, in […]
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Probably only a few die-hard Dodger fans or baseball historians remember, but Ed Stevens was the man Jackie Robinson replaced when he joined Brooklyn in 1947. I think it’s kind of sad that that is how a person is remembered (Wally Pipp), but at least he is remembered As the New York Times‘ obituary by […]
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is available on Amazon.com,
In my most recent "day job," I was the sports and features editor for a weekly New Jersey newspaper, where I hosted another blog. Busy, busy, busy.
I did a profile piece on the award-winning cartoonist Arnold Roth and he was nice enough to "immortalize" me.
My article on the later biographies of Babe Ruth appears in
My article on the Mets’ 1969 postseason appears in
Profiles of several Jewish baseball figures appear in
