Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
I was having coffee with Dave “No Relation” Kaplan yesterday. You may know him from as the former executive director of the Yogi Berra Museum and collaborator on several books with the late Hall of Famer. We were lamenting the passing of the stars from our younger days, such as Hank Aaron, Tom Seaver, […]
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More and more, it seems the players I grew up admiring as a teenager are shuffling off this mortal coil. This includes Hall of Famers, Greats, Near-Greats, and ordinary lunch bucket guys. The latest from that “generation” is Vida Blue, who passed away Saturday at the age of 73. Here’s his obituary by Alex Traub […]
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Even though I had been collecting a few cards in the mid 1960s, this is the one that stands out in my mind: Mike Shannon from the 1967 Topps set. Shannon, who was associated with the Cardinals for almost 60 years as a player and broadcaster, passed away Saturday at the age of 83. Here’s […]
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Dick Groat, an eight-time All-Star who won the NL MVP award in 1960 while playing shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates, died April 27 at the age of 92. Here’s his obituary by Richard Goldstein in The New York Times. (The Times piece notes he was a five-time All-Star, but I’m saying eight since they played […]
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The co-author of one of the best selling baseball books ever — The Science of Hitting — has died at the age of 88. Underwood collaborated with Ted Williams for this classic, which was first published more than 50 years ago. It has appeared on my Baseball Best Seller entries just about every week since […]
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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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Games are shorter by a good chunk, thanks to the speed-up rules now in place. MLB thinks that’s a good thing, but who are they trying to convince? “Real” baseball fans, IMO, don’t care about the length of the games. The longer the better (unless the weather is crappy). That’s what separates baseball from other […]
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The first thing you have to have is a catcher. Because if you don’t have a catcher, you’re going to have a lot of passed balls and you’re going to be chasing the ball back to the screen all day. Casey Stengel on the decision to make Hobie Landrith the expansion New York Mets first […]
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Not a ballplayer, manager, or coach. But the actor, who died at the age of 81 on Saturday, played a famous figure in Major League history. Or rather infamous. Learner portrayed the gambler Arnold Rothstein in the 1988 feature film, Eight Men Out. Here’s his obituary from The New York Times by Lauren McCarthy.
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It’s been a tough week. We lost three former players, each of whom were icons in their own right. On February 28, Jean Faut, a star pitcher in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, died at the age of 98. From The New York Times‘ obit by Richard Sandomir: Over eight seasons, the right-handed Faut […]
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I have a soft spot for players with extra longevity. Tim McCarver enjoyed a 21-year career. And while others have been around longer, he managed to do it over four decades, so extra points. Sadly, he passed away today at the age of 81. McCarver began his career as a 17-year-old (!) with the St. […]
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It’s been a rough couple of weeks. We lost four players, three of whom were from my own “golden age” of fandom. Frank Thomas (died at age 93 on Jan. 16) was one of the few bright spots for the 1962 Mets, clubbing 34 home runs, a mark that stood until Dave Kingman’s 36 in […]
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I’ve been posting a lot of these over the years (more than 300, but, sorry to say, I missed a few along the way), but MLB.com has put together a nice list of baseball figures who passed away over the course of the year, including: Roger Angel Tommy Davis Jeremy Giambi Hector Lopez Gaylord Perry […]
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The only pitcher in Reds history to throw a perfect game passed away unexpectedly yesterday at the age of 62. Browning spent 12 years in the majors, all but one with the Reds before his finale with the Kansas City Royals. He finished with a record of 123-90 and led the NL in starts for […]
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The lefty ace for the Philadelphia Phillies “Whiz Kids” in 1950 passed away yesterday at the age of 93. He had been the last surviving member of that team following the death of fellow hurler Bob Miller, 94, in 2020. Here’s his obit by Richard Goldstein in The New York Times and Frank Fitzpatrick in […]
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The young man who caught Roger Maris’ iconic 61st home run in 1961 died as an old man of 81 in 2022. He passed away last Thursday. From today’s New York Times obituary by Richard Sandomir On that fall afternoon, Maris was tied with Babe Ruth for the single-season major league record of 60 home […]
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The Hall of Famer died yesterday at the age of 84. Perry pitched for eight teams during his 22-year career in which he pitched 5,350 innings, winning 314 wins while striking out 3,534. But, as The New York Times‘ Richard Goldstein writes in the obituary, “he’s remembered as much for his acknowledged spitball, with saliva […]
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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. In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast […]
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Yes, the legendary baseball writer for The New Yorker died last May, but Nicholas Dawidoff (The Catcher Was a Spy, The Crowd Sounds Happy, Baseball: A Literary Anthology) pays tribute in this recent posting on The Atlantic. deeming Angell to be “the finest writer ever to turn his consistent attention to baseball.” Why this piece […]
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An original member of the Florida Marlins, with whom he led the NL in stolen base leader in 1993, Chuck Carr recently passed away at the age of 55. He had been battling health problems according to family members. Carr made his major league debut with the New York Mets in 1990. In additional to […]
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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
