Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here
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Robinson was born this date in 1919, which means he would have been 93 today. Sadly, he passed away almost 40 years ago, way too young. It isn’t necessary to repeat all the sacrifices he made, all the doors he opened. One would hope everyone in this country — baseball fan or not — would [...]
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Bill Mardo in 1999. Mardo, who died Jan. 20 at the age of 88, was a journalist who worked for the Communist publication The Daily Worker in the 1940s-50s. Along with fellow MOTs Lester “Red” Rodney and Nat Low, Mardo — born William Bloom — agitated for baseball to break the color barrier, which paved [...]
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Small wonder in that they had to do with Jackie Robinson. Robinson’s teammate, Don Newcombe, recalled ameeting between the two iconic figures for a piece in Time Magazine in 2007: Do you know what Jackie’s impact was? Well, let Martin Luther King tell you. In 1968, Martin had dinner in my house with my family. [...]
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Just a thought. I’m listening to the audio version of George Vecsey’s Stan Musial: An American Life, narrated by Scott Brick. It brought something to mind. As every American — baseball fan or not — may know, Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play in the major Leagues (at least in the [...]
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‘Tis the season for the various awards to start announcing their nominees. Surprisingly, Moneyball is up for four Golden Globe Awards, including best drama (!), actor in a movie drama (Brad Pitt), supporting actor in a movie (Jonah Hill), and best screenplay (Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian). Rob Neyer, SB Nation’s baseball editor and a [...]
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From ESPN.com: WASHINGTON — The Washington Nationals’ director of player development has clarified remarks in which he compared No. 1 draft pick Bryce Harper to Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson. “My sole intent was to speak to the scrutiny that Harper faces on a daily basis,” Doug Harris said in a statement Tuesday. “The hardships [...]
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Years ago, Vince Coleman made a jackass out of himself by forgetting the debt he and other African-American players owed to Jackie Robinson. I wonder if the same generalization could be made about today’s athletes when it comes to the man responsible for the millions of dollars they receive. HBO’s excellent Real Sports program sounds [...]
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The American troubadour turned 70 yesterday. So what does Dylan have to do with baseball? (Is that a rhetorical question? Obviously, or I wouldn’t have asked it.) In 2006, Dylan featured baseball music and poetry in his “Theme Time Radio Hour” on XM Satellite Radio. The one-hour program, available on CD, consisted of several of [...]
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The Two Lives of Roy Campanella, by Neil Lanctot. Simon and Schuster, 2011. My first thoughts when I heard about this book was, “It’s about time.” Roy Campanella was a three-time NL MVP and a Hall of Famer, yet aside from It’s Good to Be Alive, his own ghostwritten autobiography, there have been no “adult” [...]
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I haven’t done the research, but I would venture to guess Jan. 31 has the record for most Hall of Famers born: Jackie Robinson, Ernie Banks, and Nolan Ryan. Robinson would have been 92 today. As befits his stature in American as well as baseball history, there are dozens of books written about him, for [...]
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Branch Rickey was born this Dec. 20, 1881. When asked why he fought to make Jackie Robinson accepted in the Major Leagues, Rickey often told the story of a black teammate from his college days who was shunned by opponents. There are numerous books about Rickey, but perhaps none more detailed and insightful than Lee [...]
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The main story — and it’s a biggie — is Bruce Schoenfeld’s “Stealing Home,” an ode to a dying art.
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The crime novelist, perhaps best known for his “Spenser” series, passed away at the age of 77. As much as I enjoyed the TV version, starring Robert Urich and Avery Brooks, the novels were all pretty much the same. Parker branched out in later years. He wrote a few mysteries with a female protagonist as [...]
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One more legend I missed an opportunity to interview. Rodney, who died at the age of 98, was the sports editor of the communist newspaper, The Daily Worker. He was also a champion in the battle to have Major League Baseball admit African Americans to its ranks. So in a sense, he was probably doubly [...]
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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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