Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here
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From the Baseball Hall of Fame: Baseball and the movies grew up together in America, becoming a part of the fabric of the nation that made both famous. Their shared history is on display every day at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum through the Baseball At The Movies exhibit. And the newest [...]
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I’ve been meaning to do an entry on him for awhile now. I recently saw Matewan, in which Jones — who turns 80 today — plays “Few Clothes” Johnson, a coal miner involved in a strike. What caught my attention — of course — was a scene in which the miners play a game baseball [...]
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Actually, with the way it works, the Dec. 20 issue was last week (Tim Linceum graces the Dec. 27 year-end issue)), but there’s a goodly amount of baseball items in “The Year in Sports Media” issue that I didn’t want it to go by unremarked upon. The robots are taking over! Steve Rushin writes about [...]
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Flipping through the dial last night when I cam across Ronald Reagan starring as Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander in The Winning Team, a 1952 bio-pic. Alexander played from 1911-1930 and pitched in the 1915, ’26, and ’28 World Series, the last two as an elder member of the St. Louis Cardinals. He’s [...]
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The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will recognize the twin traditions of baseball and film when, for the fifth consecutive year, it hosts the Baseball Film Festival in Cooperstown, Oct. 1-3. The Hall of Fame is accepting submissions for the 2010 Baseball Film Festival through Aug. 13. Films can be of any length [...]
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Would that be cool for the Miller brothers? This NY Times review of their movie, Touching Home, is a good start. You can also view an interview with Josh and Logan here. A reminder, the film premieres in NYC tonight at the Village East Cinema.
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This is the time of year when we get the lists of the best and worst movies, books, etc. of the year. And because this is 2009, we get the bonus best/worst of the decade. Larry Tye’s Satchel was selected by The New York Times as one of the 100 notable books of the year, [...]
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(If you live in the Washington, DC area.) The Library of Congress will host a series of baseball films from Sept. 28-Oct. 2, as part of its “Baseball Americana Lunchtime Film Series” in the Pickford Theater of the Madison Building. Monday, Sept. 28 In Search of History: The World Series Fixed! The Black Sox Scandal [...]
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The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will recognize the twin traditions of baseball and film when, for the fourth consecutive year, it hosts the Baseball Film Festival in Cooperstown, Oct. 2-4. Thirteen films, with themes ranging from women in baseball to a baseball league in Israel, will be screened as filmmakers compete for [...]
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Sugarball is coming to the small screen. DVD and Blue-Ray versions will be available on Sept. 1. The critically-acclaimed feature film takes a realistic look at the peaks and valleys of a young Dominican pitching phenom as he leaves his home to embark on a dream life. The adjustments, triumphs, and setbacks make for compelling [...]
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Channel surfing over the weekend. Found a few baseball flicks of varying quality. Don’t Look Back: The Story of Leroy “Satchel” Paige, a 1981 biopic starring Lou Gossett, Jr. as Paige, Cleavon Little as some annoying sidekick named “Rabbit,” and Clifton Davis as Cool Papa Bell. Came in on a scene where Paige is auditioning [...]
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From the famous Monty Python “Parrot Sketch.” Why do I bring this up? because Moneyball, the movie, may not be dead after all. Sony Pictures Entertainment has quietly moved to salvage its troubled movie project “Moneyball” by hiring the prominent screenwriter Aaron Sorkin for a quick rewrite, while looking to add Scott Rudin, known for [...]
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Given the draft of the script. I’ll watch anything about baseball. Cartoons, documentaries, lousy films (Jackie Robinson was a great ballplayer, but a poor actor). But this draft of the aborted Brad Pitt vehicle would sorely try my patience (Groucho Marx: “Don’t mind if I do. You must try mine sometime.”). Moneyball, the non-fiction neo-classic [...]
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From the K.C. Star, which gave the film 3.5 out of 5 stars. Upshot: …the movie achieves a rare sense of realism. Plus, since it refuses to follow a formula, we have no idea where the story is headed. It is rare when a film takes us in a direction we might not have been [...]
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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 Bonnie Bernstein, winner of the October book, Fenway Park:The Centennial: 100 Years of Red Sox Baseball
The November book will be Fenway 1912: The Birth of a Ballpark, a Championship Season, and Fenway's Remarkable First Year
Tell your friends!
My article on Yankees Fantasy Camp appears in the current issue of Broadside Bombers.
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:
The Last Icon: Tom Seaver and His Times
Grade: C-. Too many errors and too much overwrought writing.
Fear Strikes Out: The Jim Piersall Story
Grade: A. Still a bit "innocent," but amazingly ahead of its time in deal with its subject matter of mental illness.
What's next:
With a lull in the release of new baseball titles, a re-read of Brittle Innings
Recently acquired:
Nothing lately
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The Lou’s
February 26, 2011 · 0 comments
I don’t know, what name would you suggest for an award to honor the best baseball performances? At Oscar time, Jim Caple of ESPN’s Page 2 offers his take on “Academy Awards for Baseball Movies” (he dubbed his awards the “Oscar Madisons”). No real surprises here, although I would have selected Costner over Matthau, Davis [...]
Tagged as: Bang the Drum Slowly, Baseball Movies, Jim Caple, TEGWAR
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