Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
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No, Michael Nussbaum never played professional baseball. Nor was he an executive or a coach on any level. So what’s the connection? Recognize him now? It’s a scene from Field of Dreams (1989) in which Ray Kinsella and his wife, Annie, attend a school meeting regarding book censorship (unfortunately still a topical issue today. Not […]
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Meant to post this a while back. The actor famed for, among other roles, his rendition of Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams died last week at the age of 67. There have been complaints about the casting of and portrayal by Liotta as the shamed Black Sox outfielder. For one thing, there was […]
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The character actor who played Chick Gandil in the classic baseball flick Field of Dreams died Nov. 17 at the age of 78 after a long battle with Parkinson’s. Gandil — a notorious member of the Black Sox — was not the only baseball figure LaFleur portrayed: he also appeared as Babe Ruth in The Sandlot. […]
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There’s a link in Graham Womack’s piece on The Sporting News site that will take you to a similar ranking of “the best baseball movies of all time.” I wouldn’t have raised a peep if they substituted “favorite” for “best,” but you know how I feel about superlatives; I’m not going to let this go […]
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Next to baseball and books (and, of course, baseball books), I enjoy learning about what goes on behind the scenes in movies. That’s why I enjoy the I Was There Too podcast hosted by Matt Gourley, which features interviews with actors who may not have been the stars of the films in which they appeared, […]
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* Josh Wilker’s forthcoming book, Benchwarmer: An Anxious Dad’s Almanac of Fatherhood and Other Failures gets a thumbs up from Kirkus. Upshot: “This almanac of fatherhood (and other failures) is honest, relatable and humorous—an indispensable read for fathers (and sons) whose joy in life comes not from winning the big game but being alive to […]
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Don’t forget, this week’s Conversation features Dwier Brown, who portrayed Ray Kinsella’s “ghost-player” father, John, in Field of Dreams. Wanted to give this plenty of time to circulate for Father’s Day. His indigog campaign is no longer active — he made more than the goal — but I still think this video is worth watching. […]
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The excellent Joe Posnanski writes about Field of Dreams, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. As such, the 1989 film, which was nominated for three Oscars and won several “best foreign language film” from international organizations, will no doubt he the subject of similar pieces, some which will heap praise, others derision. The next […]
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The Atlantic posted this slideshow of sports movies with improbable story lines. I know you’re supposed to suspend disbelief at the cinema but even these stretch the limit, several of which have to do with pretending to be a different gender to be allowed to play the sport in question. The baseball films include such […]
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W. P. Kinsella was awarded the 2011 Jack Graney Award, presented by the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame for a “significant contribution to the game of baseball in Canada through a life’s work or for a singular outstanding achievement.” The award is named for one of the first Canadian baseball players to enjoy success in the […]
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I looked and looked but could not find any on-line video for the scene in Field of Dreams in which a young Archie Graham stands in awe and rattles of the names of some of the ghost players that Shoeless Joe Jackson has recruited to play. Doesn’t this commercial from the MLB Network remind you […]
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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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Was it the “Hey, dad, you wanna have a catch?” ending of Field of Dreams… or Jimmy Morris giving his dad the ball for his Major League Debut in The Rookie? (Sorry, no video.) Or, coming from another angle, how about this from Fear Strikes Out, with its foreshadowing music, wide eyes, and guilt-inducing collapse […]
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Got a few extra mil you’re not doing anything with? Why not buy the Field of Dreams? Cheap at twice the price. Here’s another spin on the situation from Sportressofblogitude.
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Thanks to a comment by Robert Loy, I had a “Homer Simpson” moment for totally forgetting about a crucial Salinger/baseball connection. Loy wrote, “What I want to know is why the ever-litigious Salinger didn’t sue Bill Kinsella over being included in ‘Shoeless Joe.’ And if he was okay with it why did they change it […]
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From The Henry Wiggen Blog, this review of the W.P. Kinsella classic and Eric Role Greenberg’s novel.
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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
