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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It should come as no surprise that this year’s CASEY Award, presented by Spitball Magazine, goes to Joe Posnanski for his latest masterpiece, Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments. It almost seems unfair that such great work should come from the same writer in such quick succession. From the press release from […]
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The things one finds wandering down the rabbit hole. I was doing some research and just happened to come across the new film, Fielding Dreams: A Celebration of Baseball Scouts. It’s a fascinating look at an under-reported part of the game. The first thing I thought of was the scene in Moneyball in which Billy […]
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Back from vay-cay. Reading an interesting book, The Gas and Flame Men: Baseball and the Chemical Warfare Service during World War I, by Jim Leeke. Also finished a novel — a rarity for me — The Fireballer, by Mark Stevens, on the basis of its inclusion as a finalist for Spitball Magazine‘s CASEY Award. Started […]
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A League of Their Own premiered more than 30 years ago. Ahead of my Bookshelf Conversation with Erin Carlson, author of No Crying in Baseball: The Inside Story of A League of Their Own — Big Stars, Dugout Drama, and a Home Run for Hollywood, I found several stories about the film that takes a […]
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As I sadly acknowledge in the video, history should be a lot older than me. Fifty years takes up a major portion of my life which means I’m old. Anyway… John Rosengren, author of The Greatest Summer in Baseball History: How the ’73 Season Changed Us Forever, had to explain the use of “forever,” one […]
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A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes. (See my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks.”) In addition, occasionally […]
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I have been contributing to Bookreporter.com for nigh on to 25 years. They’ve always been quite generous when it comes to my spouting off, mostly on baseball literature, giving me the space for several feature-length pieces. Here’s my latest “roundup review” which includes: THE 1998 YANKEES: The Inside Story of the Greatest Baseball Team Ever […]
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If I couldn’t have a career as a major league player, I think I like to have Marty Appel‘s resume (perhaps after Roger Angell). Appel began as the kid who answered Mickey Mantle’s fan mail (and wouldn’t you like to get a peek at some of those?). He eventually became the Yankees’ PR director under […]
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Whenever I think about the work in Lee Lowenfish’s new book, Baseball’s Endangered Species: Inside the Craft of Scouting by Those Who Lived It, I am always reminded of the scene from Moneyball where old battles with new: In my conversation with Lowenfish, I referenced my own images of scouts from movies like The Stratton […]
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A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes. (See my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks.”) In addition, occasionally […]
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To paraphrase from a Thomas Boswell classic, “Time Begins on Opening Day.” In Michael Ortman‘s case, multiply that times 50. One of the things I wanted to ask the author of Opening Day: 50-for-50: One Fan, One Game, A Half-Century of Baseball Stories was how his approach to the game has changed over time. Like […]
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Heard on NPR’s Morning Edition show, March 6: “Evan Drellich’s new book sheds light on the Houston Astros cheating scandal.” I usually don’t mix baseball with politics with baseball (unless it’s in a good way), but this is important enough to me that I don’t care if I ruffle a few feathers by […]
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Man, it’s been a long time since I’ve had a catch. I stopped playing competitive softball almost five years ago. Then COVID (I actually bought a Pitchback for the yard and used it maybe a couple of times). Then the accident (the resulting arm injuries make it painful to throw). So I was a bit […]
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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
