Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf — If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here — Page 2

Shameless self-promotion: Books about, by Jews among baseball’s ‘must-reads’

(Haven’t done one of these in awhile. The following appears in the April 18 issue of the New Jersey Jewish News) This year, at least seven Jewish athletes will ply their trade League rosters (two more are on the disabled list). It might be argued that a much larger contribution to the women who write [...]

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Review roundup, April 16

Catching up on Tom Hoffarth’s “30/30″ feature: Day 12: The Victory Season: The End of World War II and the Birth of Baseball’s Golden Age, by Robert Weintraub Day 13: Smoky Joe Wood: The Biography of a Baseball Legend, by Gerald C. Wood Day 14: Keepers Of The Game: When The Baseball Beat was the [...]

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Dickey profiled on 60 Minutes

R.A. Dickey was the subject of a profile on last Sunday’s 60 Minutes. I’m curious about the timing; one would have thought it would have come last year, in connection with his book. As has been the case, Dickey is well-spoken.

Tagged as: R.A. Dickey

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Triviality vs. “life goes on”

"Ripped from today's headlines..."

Yesterday I was supposed to be interviewed by WFMB-Am, the ESPN affiliate sports talk radio station in Springfield , Ill. about my book. The call was scheduled at 5:05 p.m., my time. Given the horrific circumstances of the events at the Boston Marathon (haven’t looked at the tabloids yet; are any of them using the [...]

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Horror in Boston

"Ripped from today's headlines..."

“Boston Marathon Blasts Kill 2, Police Say,” NY Times headline The explosions went off more than four hours after the start of the men’s race, which meant that there were still several thousand runners yet to finish the race. Can you imagine if there had been a similar or additional event at Fenway Park, where [...]

Tagged as: Boston Red Sox

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We’re all Jackie Robinson

"Ripped from today's headlines..."

There’s a line in the new biopic, 42, in which Pee Wee Reese tells his new teammate Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to break the (modern) color line, “Maybe tomorrow we’ll all wear 42. That way they won’t tell us apart.” That tomorrow is today. Today Major League Baseball holds its annual Jackie Robinson Day. [...]

Tagged as: Jackie Robinson

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Lest we forget: Jonathan Winters

Because I can...

Proof that if you look hard enough, you can make a baseball connection. And he’s got a pretty good motion, too. R.I.P. to a comic legend.

Tagged as: Jonathan Winters

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The reviews are in for 42

All right, let’s get this out of the way. I haven’t seen the movie yet, and will be writing my own review, but I think I’ve heard enough and read enough to spout off. Since this is a biopic “based on a true story,” I had no qualms about listening to Slate’s Spoiler Special for [...]

Tagged as: 42, Jackie Robinson

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Yogi Berra Museum hosts program on Hank Greenberg

The Yogi Berra Museum, located on the campus of Montclair State University, will host a lunch program on Hank Greenberg on Friday, April 26, at noon. Guests include John Rosengren, author of the new biography Hank Greenberg: The Hero of Heroes; Aviva Kempner, producer/director/writer of The award-winning documentary The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, [...]

Tagged as: Aviva Kempner, Hank Greenberg, John Rosengren

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Review roundup, April 11

Catching up with Tom Hoffarth’s “30/30″ series: Day 7: The Baseball Thesaurus, by Jesse Goldberg-Strassler Day 8: Baseball’s New Frontier: A History of Expansion, 1961-1998, by Fran Zimniuch Day 9: 100 Things Angels Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die (100 Things…Fans Should Know), by Joe Haakenson Day 10: Who’s on Worst?: The Lousiest [...]

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The cast of 42: You be the judge

Cautiously optimistic about the release of 42 this week. As reported in the Arts & Leisure section of last Sunday’s Times, it’s difficult to boil down the meaning of such an iconic figure in a 128-minute film. As such films are wont, it is “based on a true story.” The list of ballplayers and other [...]

Tagged as: 42, Branch Rickey, Jackie Robinson

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Nix to sports flix show by MSG hicks

Baseball in the movies

I love baseball. I love the movies. So the combination of the two is like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup: the best of both world. So I was really looking forward to the first episode of MSG’s The Lineup: Best Sports Movies, an eight-part series which debuted with a discussion of baseball features. I was [...]

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Review roundup, April 9

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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Lest we forget: Roger Ebert

Baseball Movies

The long-time movie critic succumbed to cancer yesterday at the age of 70. He was given a “melancholy happy trails” tribute on Pardon the Interruption, in which co-host Tony Kornheiser noted that his show copied liberally from the dynamic Ebert and his co-host, Gene Siskel, employed in their TV show, At The Movies. As would [...]

Tagged as: Rogert Ebert

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Review roundup, April 5

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 [...]

Tagged as: Mike Piazza, Tom Hoffarth

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National Pastime Radio

Only a Game featured Filip Bondy on it’s most recent show on which he discussed his new book, Who’s on Worst?: The Lousiest Players, Biggest Cheaters, Saddest Goats and Other Antiheroes in Baseball History. You can listen to the segment here. It was on that show I discovered OAG host Bill Littlefield had interviewed W.P. [...]

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Pundittracker does the work so I don’t have to

One of my favorite baseball preseason pastimes is reading all the predictions from the “experts.” I would pore over the annual publications, the newspapers (when they used to publish a special section right before Opening Day, and the various websites and create elaborate spreadsheets. That way, I could test the accuracy of their prognostications at [...]

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Review roundup, April 3

Time to play catch-up. This is the period when many newspapers run their reviews of baseball titles to coincide with the beginning of the season. A few books are getting a sizable proportion of attention. And if I understand the concept of zero-sum games, that means others which might be just as good but lack [...]

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Previews are us

Congratulations to the Houston Astros, now proudly atop the AL West. Shows what all the baseball pundits know. That’s what the preview issues are all about: picking who will finish where, which team will win it all, who will be the big award winners come the end of the season. The two primary publications, to [...]

Tagged as: ESPN the Magazine, Sports Illustrated

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Bookshelf Q&A: Billy Sample

Billy Sample, who enjoyed a nine-year career, primarily with the Texas Rangers, has turned to “act two” of his life, literally. Sample served as executive producer, co-director, and writer of Reunion 108, a feature film about to make its official release. From the IMDB plot summary: Two generations of professional baseball players return for a [...]

Tagged as: Billy Sample

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