Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
Posts tagged as:
If I couldn’t have a career as a major league player, I think I like to have Marty Appel‘s resume (perhaps after Roger Angell). Appel began as the kid who answered Mickey Mantle’s fan mail (and wouldn’t you like to get a peek at some of those?). He eventually became the Yankees’ PR director under […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
It’s unfortunate, but I’m betting the obituaries for Oscar Gamble will lead off with something noting the huge Afro he sported in his latter player days. The 17-year veteran, who put in service with seven teams, died today at the age of 68. In addition to having MVP hair, Gamble — who played for the […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Casey Stengel: Baseball’s Greatest Character by veteran baseball publicist and author Marty Appel has been named recipient of Spitball Magazine’s coveted CASEY Award. From Spitball’s press release: In garnering one first-place vote and two second-place votes, Mr. Appel received the clear approbation of the Judges, handily outdistancing the runner-up by four points. Judge Al Turnbull […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Ray Robinson was among the last of his generation of sportswriters and authors. I had the pleasure of speaking with him on several occasions in my capacity as sports editor for the NJ Jewish News. He passed away yesterday at the age of 96. Marty Appel, shown with Robinson (right) at the dedication of a […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Kudos to the planning committee; they saved the best (IMHO) for last. (Note: this was written over the course of the day, so bear in mind the timeframe references.) The final full day began with meeting some old friends: Curt Smith, author of several excellent books about the legendary broadcasters of the game (photo below […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
NOTE: I have been posting these things long enough now that a few have commented that the introductory section isn’t necessary anymore. But I’m leaving it in because, to paraphrase Joe DiMaggio when asked why he played so hard all the time, there may be people who’ve never read the best-seller entries before. So on […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
NOTE: I have been posting these things long enough now that a few have commented that the introductory section isn’t necessary anymore. But I’m leaving it in because, to paraphrase Joe DiMaggio when asked why he played so hard all the time, there may be people who’ve never read the best-seller entries before. So on […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Marty Appel, who knows a thing or two about baseball, New York, and literature, recently contributed this article about the 75 baseball titles that earned recognition as a New York Times best-seller to the online National Pastime Museum. There might be a little local bias here: 33 of the titles were written by or about […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
If he had just been a Jewish ballplayer, dayenu, it would have been enough. If he had just been arguably the best pitcher of his generation, dayenu. But when Sandy Koufax declined to take the mound for the first game of the 1965 World Series? More than enough. Fifty years later, Koufax’s decision to sit […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Since I posted the first of these on a Thursday, which is known on social media as a time of reflection, I thought to make it a regular thing under this rubric. These are kind of fun; it’s like a box of chocolates — you never know what you’re gonna get. (Actually, I never understood […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
By Douglas B. Lyons. The Lyons Press. 216 Pages. $24.95 To be fair, how do you write a book about a book that’s essentially about tables of numbers? That’s the challenge Lyons picks up in 100 Years of Who’s Who in Baseball. While it’s fun to look at each of the covers, dating back to […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
When 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die came out last year, I had the hopes than in addition to being read just for the sake of reading, it might be incorporated into colleges and high school classes about literature, sports, humanities, etc. I still do and maybe someone out there reading this […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Made one of my occasional visits to Amazon for the purpose of seeing what new and exciting baseball titles or coming in the next several months. Here’s a sampling of some, excluding, as usual — although with one major exception — books for younger readers. In nor particular order… * Baseball Explained. Phillip Mahoney, McFarland, […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
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
What if…
January 17, 2014
Saw this on Marty Appel‘s Facebook page: Ok, so I thought of this last night. It’s September 29, 2014. Yankees and Red Sox have tied for first in AL East and need to have a one-game playoff to see who wins the division. But wait, it is game #163…..A-Rod has served his 162 game suspension, […]
Tagged as: Alex Rodriguez, Marty Appel
{ Comments on this entry are closed }