Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
Posts tagged as:
Or “Methinks he doth protest too much.” I feel sorry for a lot of today’s celebrities, especially athletes. After years of (self?) denial, Lance Armstrong admitted he used performance enhancing drugs. Ballplayer after ballplayer swears on a stack of bibles that he’s clean, only to have the evidence turn out to prove him “misstating.” The [...]
{ 0 comments }
Haven ‘t appeared on the What’s on Second show for awhile because of my softball league obligations, but a rare Monday rainout (our Wednesday games seem to get postponed with disappointing regularity) allowed me to put in an appearance. MLB writer Jonathan Mayo (Facing Clemens: Hitters on Confronting Baseball’s Most Intimidating Pitcher) was the featured [...]
{ 0 comments }
Actually it’s the Fall 2010 issue of SABR’s Baseball Research Journal, in which I have a review-essay on four Yankee titles including The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood; Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball: Roger Maris: Baseball’s Reluctant Hero; and The Yankee Years. It’s so new, it isn’t even up [...]
{ 2 comments }
Book Club Classics includes The Yankee Years among its suggestions for top men’s reads for the summer. The Yankee Years By Joe Torre What it is: Joe Torre’s tale of his years as manager of the Yankees. Why you should read it: Sure, Torre already wrote an autobiography and a self-help book, but this is [...]
{ 0 comments }
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t go back to a review of The Yankee Years; that so over. But I’ll make an exception for Roger Angell. The veteran sportswriter praises the work of both Torre and Verducci (“Verducci has range and ease; he’s a shortstop on the page.”) In the book, it’s a rush when you reach those [...]
{ 0 comments }
by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci Doubleday The former manager of the New York Yankees — and one of its most successful — teams up with Sports Illustrated’s senior baseball writer for this unique and somewhat baffling presentation. Although Joe Torre gets top billing as the nominative author, the reader will get the impression that [...]
{ 0 comments }
In an item on The New Yorker website, Ben McGrath reminds us that Jose Canseco, the author of Juiced and Vindicated reported on A-Rod’s juice use years ago, but no one wanted to believe him. Does that make Canseco a Cassandra? In other book news of special interest to New York fans: Don’t look for [...]
{ 0 comments }
So what do you think: will the reports of A-Rod on steroids help the sale of Joe Torre’s book? Not that it needs much in the way of a push, according to this piece in the New York Daily News. A suspicious person would wonder about the timing of the announcement. After all, it’s been [...]
{ 0 comments }
New York newspapers devoted a lot of space to the return of Torre as he visits the Big Apple for his book tour. The New York Times published this article on fan reaction during his Barnes and Noble stop in Manhattan. The story, written by Joshua Robinson, offers the following thoughts by the author as [...]
{ 0 comments }
In trying to protect themselves against future “attacks” with their ” non-disparagement clause,” the Yankees have instead made themselves a laughing stock at best and a source of outrage at worst. Look for the ACLU to get involved at any moment. And PETA; they’re always looking for some publicity. Among the numerous commentaries on the [...]
{ 0 comments }
In light of Joe Torre’s new book, the Yankees are considering a non-disparagement clause in their employee contracts. According to a Newsday article by Wallace Mathews, “The Yankees are said to feel betrayed by Torre’s book, which has been interpreted as critical of some players, most notably Alex Rodriguez, and inaccurate in its recounting of [...]
{ 0 comments }
Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated‘s senior baseball writer, was already the subject of an interview about The Yankee Years by his employer, but here’s another. Does the fact that SI is interviewing one of its own with one of its own (in this most recent case Alex Belth is credited, although there’s no reproter named for [...]
{ 0 comments }
Well said, sir. In another piece about the Torre book, Jay Price of the Staten Island Advance notes what a long, slow off-season it’s been for the sports desks: Most of the revelations turned out to be as shocking as finding out Rush Limbaugh’s not planning any sleepovers at the Obama White House. What’s that [...]
{ 0 comments }
I’m surprised it’s taken this long for players who have written books to come out against Joe Torre. David Wells — no stranger to controversy himself — evidently called his former manager a “punk” for breaking “the code” and dishing dirt. The story, reported here by the New York Daily News, offers Wells’ thoughts: “When [...]
{ 0 comments }
A feeling of discomfort brought on by the use of the word “betrayal” by many sports pundits has Joe Torre on the defensive. In this piece from yesterday’s NYTimes.com, the former Yankee manager seeks to right the wrong impressions that the publisher’s marketing department probably looooves. You can practically see them rubbing their hands with [...]
{ 0 comments }
Now begins the backpedaling. Torre and Cashman are still pals, says this article by Jack Curry in today’s NY Times. And Richard Sandomir contributes this thoughtful column on the style the author’s used (third person): “a hybrid in the sphere of celebrity autobiographies, in which a star hires a writer to render his or her [...]
{ 0 comments }
(Man, I wish I had a named that rhymed cooly with something.) Can’t believe WINS radio led off some of its segments with the “controversy” of the new book. One person interviewed sagely opined that the whole media blitz was just a way to sell more copies, to which the reporter added something along the [...]
{ 0 comments }
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
Tell your friends!
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
| Unique Visitors |
Ticket America can supply you with
Baltimore Orioles
and
Boston Red Sox as well as New York Yankees home games and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. We carry
Toronto Blue Jays seating plus
Atlanta Braves game time information and Miami Marlins New York Mets seating charts Philadelphia Phillies and all Washington Nationals
"Housecall service for your pet"
Advertising on the Bookshelf
Interested in sponsorship/advertising opportunities? E-mail here.
* Too much, too late?
July 25, 2009 · 0 comments
This two-page overview of three Yankees titles — The Yankees Years, by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci; A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez, by Selena Roberts; and American Icon: The Fall of Roger Clemens and the Rise of Steroids in America’s Pastime, by Thompson, Vinton, O’Keeffe and Red — appears in this weeks New [...]
Tagged as: Alex Rodriguez, Joe Torre, New York Yankees, PED, Roger Clemens, sterodis
{ 0 comments }