Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Michigan Live posted this review on John Rosengren’s new biography, Hank Greenberg: The Hero of Heroes. Upshot: “Rosengren…lovingly describes the devotion of American Jews to a man who overcame harassment and flat feet to become not just a baseball star, but an inspiration to his people.” Here’s something you don’t see everyday: a British book [...]
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The New York Times runs this review of Mike Piazza’s Long Shot. Given that the book was released almost two months ago and they’re just reviewing it now, I won’t give up the hopes that the Times will do something with 501. The review is more of a “what the book’s about” piece than whether [...]
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The AZ Snakepit, a Diamondbacks’-centric blog, posted this about John Sexton’s Baseball as a Road to God: Seeing Beyond the Game. Upshot: “Overall it’s a fine baseball book that is interesting most because it examines baseball in a manner more critical than most. The average baseball book is no better than a collection of trivia, [...]
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Lest we forget: 1991 – Cool Papa Bell, Negro League outfielder; Hall of Famer (b. 1903) Cool Papa Bell (Baseball Hall of Famers of the Negro Leagues), by Shaun McCormack, Rosen Publishing Group, 2002. On this date: 1919 – Christy Mathewson, back from the World War I, rejoins the New York Giants as pitching coach [...]
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And I’m not talking about the hundreds of podcasts actually devoted to the national pastime, but a couple not normally associated with the game. Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, the NPR (aka National Pastime Radio) news quiz show, featured San Francisco Giants announced Jon Miller in its “Not My Job” segment on the March 2 [...]
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James Bailey posted this one about Mike Piazza’s Long Shot. Upshot: “I was neutral on him when I began and emerged with a somewhat negative impression. That’s probably not what he was looking for. Your mileage will likely vary depending on how closely you followed his career.” Bill Jordan over at Baseball Reflections did this [...]
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Literary birthday greetings: 1919 – Monte Irvin, outfielder; All-Star, Hall of Famer Nice Guys Finish First: The Autobiography of Monte Irvin, by Irvin and James A. Riley, Carroll & Graf, 1996. 1929 – Syd Thrift, general manager (d. 2006) The Game According to Syd: The Theories and Teachings of Baseball’s Leading Innovator, by Thrift and [...]
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The best way to play catch-up is via a “Bits and Pieces” entry so here goes: James Bailey offers this appreciation for W.P. Kinsella’s The Iowa Baseball Confederacy. Rob Neyer, Grant Brisbee, and Murray Chass on Mike Piazza and his new book, Long Shot. Don’t know where this excellent Simpsons/Moneyball mashup came from, but Brisbee [...]
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Literary birthday greetings: 1942 – Fritz Peterson, pitcher; All-Star Mickey Mantle Is Going To Heaven, by Peterson, Outskirts Press, 2009. The Art of De-Conditioning: Eating Your Way to Heaven, by Peterson, Light Side Books, 2012. Lest we forget: 1956 – Connie Mack, catcher, manager; Hall of Famer (b. 1862) My 66 Years in the Big [...]
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Literary birthday greetings: 1953 – Dan Quisenberry, pitcher; All-Star (d. 1998) On Days Like This: Poems, by Quisenberry, Helicon Nine Editions, 1998. Also on this date: 1905 – In Lynn, Massachusetts, Rube Waddell prevents a fire by carrying a burning stove out of a store and throwing it into a snow bank. Three days later [...]
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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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The inspiration for the character of Dottie Henson in A League of Their Own, died on Saturday at the age of 88. Davis published her memoir, Dirt in the Skirt, (which weighs in at over 500 pages) in 2009. There was also a website in her name. I just visited the spot and there’s some music [...]
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Literary birthday greetings: 1934 – Hank Aaron, outfielder; All-Star, Hall of Famer Previous Aaron birthday entry. 1946 – Norm Miller, outfielder To All My Fans From Norm Who?, by Miller, Double Play Productions, 2009. 1968 – Roberto Alomar, infielder; All-Star, Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar (Latinos in Baseball), by Norman Macht, Mitchell Lane Publishers, 1998. [...]
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On this date: 1893 – The first recorded version of Casey at the Bat, as recited by Russell Hunting, hits the music charts. DeWolf Hopper’s more famous version will not be released until October 1906. 1969 – Attorney Bowie Kuhn is named commissioner, succeeding Spike Eckert. Kuhn receives a one-year contract paying him $100,000. Major [...]
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Ron reading about baseball. Ron loves movies. Therefore, Ron loves reading about baseball movies. So you know where I stand on this fascinating piece — “The Pride of the Yankees Seeknay,” published by Tom Shieber, senior curator of the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, on his Baseball Researcher blog. You can watch the whole [...]
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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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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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