Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
Posts tagged as:
I was watching Johan Santana’s no-hitter on Friday and rejoiced as the Mets stormed onto the field to celebrate after the final out was recorded. I saw one fellow, in a Mets jersey and shorts, in the scrum and assumed he was a trainer; the players didn’t seem to think anything was amiss either. How […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Henry D. Fetter, author of Taking on the Yankees: Winning and Losing in the Business of Baseball, published this piece on Atlantic.com asking, “Should the Mets’ Owners Worry About Jury Bias in Their Madoff Trial? Key paragraph: No “one percenter” relishes the idea of having their fate determined by the proverbial “jury of their peers” […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Because my TV is on my bookshelf… I’m not one of those fans who believes his team can do not wrong, that they should win every game (especially tough when you’re talking about baseball), crushing the opposition under their heel. My sanity does not hinge on how the Mets do. They were not expected to […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The first lady of the New York Mets passed away Jan. 25 at the age of 94. I had written about Jarvis a couple of years ago, once when she was taken ill and when she was honored at a Jazz concert.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
From Stephen J. Dubner on The New York Times‘ Freakonomics blog (It’s okay; the original Freakonomics still sits on my bookshelf), this assessment of the decline of Western civilization, as evidenced by the boorish behavior of fans at last night’s interleague game between the Mets and Yankees.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The Yankee game was on TV last night and I noticed from the centerfield shot that many of the seats behind the plate were vacant. At first I just chalked it up to the early hour; people probably hadn’ arrived yet. I subsequently switched to the Mets game and thought no more of it. Until […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The Mets have had a relatively short history, not even 50 years yet, and much of their lore is based on failure rather than success. Except for a handful, the players for the first few years of the team’s existence were nothing to write home about. So when authors like Matthew Silverman toss out names […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
In the days before pre-programmed music blasting from the rafters, major league ballparks employed people to play the organ to entertain the fans. Jane Jarvis played the Thomas organ for the Milwaukee Braves and the New York Mets. To be honest, I thought she had passed on years ago. But she’s very much alive and […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The submariner journeyman pitcher turns 58 today. Leach was another of those players who came to the Majors relatively late (27). He had one great year, going 11-1 for the Mets in 1987, including a 10-innning, 1-0 shutout, but received relatively littl fanfare. Leach wrote about his experiences, including his sense of betrayal by “the […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
From Faithandfear, “the blog for Mets fans who like to read.” Upshot: “Mets By The Numbers … is perhaps the most incredible repository of Mets data, Mets trivia and Mets Zeitgeist you will ever find between two covers.”
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
by David Green. 2008, Stewart, Tabori & Chang. ST&C have published a series of these books for several teams already, including the Yankees and Red Sox. The binding/dust jacket is reminiscent of an old photo album and that’s exactly the feeling the reader will get. In fact, like that old keepsake, these little books are […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
This will be the last season for the homes of both New York teams. Losing Shea Stadium is no big deal; it was a cold, cavernous ugly concrete structure from day 1. Good riddance to bad rubbish. But Yankee Stadium is a cathedral and the though of it being demolished is truly a sad one.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
As an unabashed Mets fan I’ll read anything about the team. Of course, this non-discriminatory policy can lead to some time-wasting clunkers. On the other hand, there are some time-wasters that can be lots of fun (you’re reading this, after all). Mets by the Numbers: A Complete Team History of the Amazin’ Mets by Uniform […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Karl Ehrhardt was a fixture at Shea Stadium for much of the 1960s and 1970s. Fans marveled how quickly he could hoist a placard just right for the situation on the field. He passed away at the age of 83. The Times wrote this profile of him just two years ago.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Author Neil Spagna announced that the long awaited update to his award-winning first book, Welcome To Pottersville, will be published in hardcover to coincide with the beginning of the 2008 baseball season. Tentatively scheduled for an April 28 release date, the book will include insights on the September collapse of the New York Mets, the […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Sportswriter Mitch Albom, famous for his Tuesdays with Morrie best-seller, will have his latest creation For One More Day airs as an ABC-TV movie with the Oprah seal of approval. According to IMDB.com, Day tells the story of “A suicidal former baseball player, played by Michael Imperioli, is granted one more day with his deceased […]
{ 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
More fun opening day items
April 2, 2014
Nate Silver recently began his 538.com site under the aegis of ESPN. One would hope that he and his minions will produce a lot of smart sports (i.e., baseball) stuff. Obviously a site dedicated to projections and predictions has a lot of math to it. Ugh.But you have to take the “bad” with the good. […]
Tagged as: 538.com, baseball predictions, baseball statistics, Joe Posnanski, Jonah Keri, Kansas City Royals, Mets, Nate Silver
{ Comments on this entry are closed }