Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, but congratulations to Charles P. of Long Island City, winner of the randomly selected, infrequent book giveaway selection, The Might Have Been: A Novel by Joseph Schuster. Next up — and in a quicker fashion, I promise — Mike Piazza’s Long Shot.
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Spitball Magazine has selected Paul Dickson’s Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest Maverick as the winner of the 2012 CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year. Veeck received two first-place votes and one third-place vote, for a near perfect score of five points (low score wins). According to CASEY judge Jack Griener, a Cincinnati attorney and [...]
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The Golden Globes doesn’t have a category for books, but if it did I bet Paul Dickson’s Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest Maverick would be in contention. As it is, Dickson’s bio was named winner of the 2nd annual SLA (Special Libraries Association) Baseball Caucus Readers’ Choice Award.
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♦ Here’s an oldie but a goodie via eBay: a copy of H. Allen Smith’s classic Rhubarb, about a cat who inherits a baseball team. ♦ The novel was turned into a 1951 feature film starring Ray Milland (who was also the lead in the 1949 baseball comedy It Happens Every Spring), Jan Stirling, Gene [...]
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It’s been quite a year for the Mets pitcher. He’s getting a lot of press about being the first knuckleballer to win the Cy Young Award, but I’m guessing he’s also the first NY Times best-selling author to garner the trophy while still an active pitcher.
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Spitball Magazine announced the finalists for the publications annual CASEY award for best baseball book of the year. The titles include: Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, and Assassination during the 1934 Tour of Japan, by Robert K. Fitts Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest Maverick, by Paul Dickson Connie Mack: The Turbulent and Triumphant Years, 1915-1931, by [...]
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This comes from Spitball Magazine as they prepare for the publication’s 30th annual CASEY Award for best baseball book of the year. You may nominate up to 10 books but only books which you have actually read; no hearsay please. All books to be nominated must carry a 2012 copyright. Only works published as real [...]
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Congrats to Scott P. from Rochester, winner of the RKBB Facebook friend random selection. The book this time is the paperback edition of John Thorn’s Baseball in the Garden of Eden. Next up: Hit By Pitch: Ray Chapman, Carl Mays and the Fatal Fastball by Molly Lawless.
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Congrats to Zachary James of Searsboro, Iowa, winner of the RKBB Facebook fan drawing, Curt Smith’s new book is A Talk in the Park: Nine Decades of Baseball Tales from the Broadcast Booth. (Yeah, I know it’s “like,” but that just sounds stupid in context, so I’m gonna keep on going with “fan.”) The next [...]
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The nominations for the Academy Awards were announced this morning and Moneyball came away with a “cycle” of sorts. The unlikely cinematic version of Michael Lewis’ best-seller is up for Best Picture, Best Actor (Brad Pitt), Best Supporting Actor (Jonah Hill), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin, and Stan Chervin). UPDATE: Moneyball also [...]
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Kostya Kennedy, author of 56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports, has been selected as winner of the are pleased to announce that the winner of the 2012 CASEY Award, the annual prize of Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine. According to a press release issued by Spitball editor Mike Shannon, 56 received two [...]
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After his interview with the veteran writer, Graham Womack at Baseball: Past and Present wonders if there isn’t some way for the Hall of Fame to recognize Creamer’s his contributions. What a great idea. There are several worthy scribes who didn’t work for newspapers (and therefore don’t qualify for the Spink Award, which “or meritorious [...]
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With the Golden Globes just handed out and the Oscars still on the horizon, look for more lists like these. Jeff Euston over at Baseball Prospectus offered his top ten faves, including some unusual titles such as Brewster’s Millions and Rookie of the Year. This prompted movie buff Rob Neyer to submit this one, which [...]
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The winner of the 2011 CASEY Award will be announced Monday, January 23. Finalists for the coveted literary prize include: The Art of Fielding: A Novel, by Chad Harbach Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game, by John Thorn The Big Show: Charles M. Conlon’s Golden Age Baseball Photographs, [...]
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W. P. Kinsella was awarded the 2011 Jack Graney Award, presented by the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame for a “significant contribution to the game of baseball in Canada through a life’s work or for a singular outstanding achievement.” The award is named for one of the first Canadian baseball players to enjoy success in the [...]
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Congratulations to Bill Grimes of Oak Park, IL, the latest randomly-selected winner of the Bookshelf Facebook Friend giveaway. This month’s book is Fenway 1912, by Glenn Stout. Come back soon to see the January title. And tell your friends.
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is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com.
In my "day job," I'm the features and sports editor for a weekly New Jersey newspaper. I'm also the editor of the Bibliography Committee Newsletter for the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).
I did a piece on the award-winning cartoonist Arnold Roth and he was nice enough to "immortalize" me.
Congratulations to Charles P. of Long Island City, NY, winner of the most recent Facebook Fan drawing, The Might Have Been: A Novel
Next up: Long Shot
Tell your friends!
My article on the later biographies of Babe Ruth appears in
My article on the Mets' 1969 post-season appears in
What I just read:
Southern League: A True Story of Baseball, Civil Rights, and the Deep South's Most Compelling Pennant Race
Well-intentioned, but somewhat disappointing in delivery of the intended message. B-.
What I'm reading now
Mickey and Willie: Mantle and Mays, the Parallel Lives of Baseball's Golden Age
First Impressions: Too soon to tell.
What I'm RE-reading now
Play for a Kingdom
What's next:
Gil Hodges: The Brooklyn Bums, the Miracle Mets, and the Extraordinary Life of a Baseball Legend
Baseball as a Road to God: Seeing Beyond the Game
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Bits and pieces
August 30, 2012 · 0 comments
Time for the occasional declutter of the accumulated links and stories, so here goes. “Dan Barry’s Bottom of the 33rd has won the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing, which honors a nonfiction book on the subject of sports.” More here. From the Yogi Berra Museum: Former Yankee star second baseman Bobby Richardson, a cornerstone [...]
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