Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
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The critics seem to fall into two main camps: movie critics with no special knowledge about baseball, who based their comments solely on the production values and storytelling and those baseball nerds with lots of knowledge about the topic who were mostly interested in the attention to detail, some to a most picayune level. Let’s [...]
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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. [...]
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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 [...]
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Literary birthday greeting: 1949 – Jules Tygiel, author Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy Past Time: Baseball As History Jackie Robinson and His Legacy Extra Bases – Reflections on Jackie Robinson, Race, & Baseball History Also on this date: 1981 – The Chicago White Sox sign prized free agent catcher Carlton Fisk. The [...]
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Several months ago I posted this about 42, the forthcoming biopic about Jackie Robinson. As we get closer to the scheduled April 12 release date expect to see more stories, like this one from SB Nation’s Beyond the Box Score and this from Baseball Musings. In the trailer, we see Christopher Meloni doing a pretty [...]
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EW.com includes Chadwick Boseman, star of 42, the upcoming biopic about Jackie Robinson as one of the “13 to Watch in 2013.” From the item: Why He’ll Be Big: Not only does Boseman hold his own next to Harrison Ford in the Jackie Robinson biopic 42 (out April 12), he also has the acting chops [...]
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Friday is the traditional movie review day in the press (anyone remember when there were two release days? Movies used to come out on Fridays and Wednesdays). Here’s the NY Times‘ assessment, by A.O. Scott. Upshot: The trouble with baseball movies like “Trouble With the Curve” is that they tempt reviewers to reach for hackneyed [...]
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Probably only a few die-hard Dodger fans or baseball historians remember, but Ed Stevens was the man Jackie Robinson replaced when he joined Brooklyn in 1947. I think it’s kind of sad that that is how a person is remembered (Wally Pipp), but at least he is remembered As the New York Times‘ obituary by [...]
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‘Nuf said.
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Can it really be 25 years ago since Al Campanis appeared on what might just be the most (in)famous episode of Nightline (when it was a real news program)? Campanis, then the general manager of the LA Dodgers, was on to discuss the lefacy of Jackie Robinson and ended up losing his job for his [...]
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Grant Brisbee over at Baseball Nation posted this original entry. This is so cool. Could we get contestants on today’s game shows to dress up like that? Of all people to be on the panel — Chuck Connors, who had one at bat for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1949. Many players appeared on What’s My [...]
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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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is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com.
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 Charles P. of Long Island City, NY, winner of the most recent Facebook Fan drawing, The Might Have Been: A Novel
Next up: Long Shot
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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:
Southern League: A True Story of Baseball, Civil Rights, and the Deep South's Most Compelling Pennant Race
Well-intentioned, but somewhat disappointing in delivery of the intended message. B-.
What I'm reading now
Mickey and Willie: Mantle and Mays, the Parallel Lives of Baseball's Golden Age
First Impressions: Too soon to tell.
What I'm RE-reading now
Play for a Kingdom
What's next:
Gil Hodges: The Brooklyn Bums, the Miracle Mets, and the Extraordinary Life of a Baseball Legend
Baseball as a Road to God: Seeing Beyond the Game
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The reviews are in for 42
April 12, 2013 · 0 comments
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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