Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
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Or Johan, or David, or Gary? I don’t get it: when the Yankees lose their season opener — a night game that ends late; nice big picture of Granderson after his first home run in the pinstripes — they make the front page. When the Mets win — an impressive afternoon affair — they don’t [...]
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The 1969 Cy Young winner died at the age of 72. Here’s his obit from The New York Times and a couple from the Baltimore Sun, where the Cuban pitcher had his gloey days in the lates 1960s to early 1970s: Orioles pitching great Mike Cuellar dies at 72 George Diaz’s column, “Mike Cuellar’s legacy [...]
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Here’s a sneak preview of The New York Times Sunday Book Review: (Grateful for the opportunity to reproduce the cool graphic that ran with the piece.) Bruce Weber, author of As They See ‘Em: A Fan’s Travels in the Land of Umpires, gives his take on The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: [...]
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Here’s another good analysis of what should (and should not) go into the thought processes of those voting for the Hall of Fame, by Tyler Kepner. It should be noted that The New York Times does not allow its staffers to participate in such elections.
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Congratulations to Larry Tye. His biography on Satchel Paige won a spot on The New York Times list of the year’s “notable books.” It’s the only baseball title on this exclusive roster, though not the only sports book. Tye’s critically-acclaimed offering is joined by Andre Agassi’s Open.
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Dropped by the local Barnes and Noble at lunch today. Almost shocked to see only one “quicky” publication about the Yankees’ latest championship. The New York Post published The Best, a paperback volume. I never liked this type of publication. It seems like a money grab since the stuff for the most part is just [...]
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You know the season is over for your team when the newspapers publish a feature article…and conclude with a brief graph of two about the game. Like today. The New York Times printed this piece on Daniel Murphy approaching a club record for doubles (stop the presses!) and winding up with a “and, oh, by [...]
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A few germane baseball items over the week that I overlooked: In today’s edition, John Klima, author of the recently relased Willie’s Boys: The 1948 Birmingham Black Barons, the Last Negro League World Series, and the Making of a Baseball Legend (Wiley), published this item on how the Yankees blew their chance to sign Willie [...]
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(to borrow a film title). We all know the difficulties the newspaper industry are going through. I look at the sports section for the Star-Ledger and find stories take from the NY Daily News. Reporters and columnists are being bought out. So I guess it should come as no surprise to learn that the “Sport [...]
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To paraphrase that eminent philsopher Berra. You know your team is doing poorly when its home town newspaper starts giving them a box with just a few paragraphs, as The New York Times print edition did for last night’s 10-1 Mets loss to the Giants. Haven’t done a line-by-line comparison, but here’s the Web version, [...]
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A joint review of two new books by former Mets graces the pages of the Sunday Times Book Review Section. Under the general headline “The Boys of Bummer,” Bruce Handy, a writer and deputy editor of Vantiy Fair, critiques Ron Darling’s The Perfect Game: Reflections on Baseball, Pitching, and Life on the Mound, and Darryl [...]
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In today’s NY Times, Joshua Robinson has a little piece, “Piazza Leaves Quickly, and Quietly, After Ceremony.” He writes about the ceremonial first pitch battery of Tom Seaver and the former Mets catcher. While Tom Terrific hung out afterwards to shmooze, Piazza, meanwhile, was nowhere to be seen. Escorted by security, he went from the [...]
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The best of the New York papers, it goes well beyond the predictions for the Mets and Yankees. Veteran columnist George Vecsey compares special features at Citi Field to the Polo Grounds. The main items consist of a profile of Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay with smaller items on Bobby Cox, who’s now in his [...]
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The back page of The New York Times Book Review features a full page advertisement from Bauman Rare Books. I usually don’t pay attention because as much as I lvoe ‘em, they’re out of my league, to borrow from a famous title. But a photo of Joe DiMaggio caught my eye and sure enough there [...]
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Another review of Bruce Weber’s book on umpires? This one is by Jim Bouton, and the author of the seminal Ball Four, who does his usual witty job. But as interesting as it is to get different takes, one wonders why the publication that employs Weber would publish more than one critique just over a [...]
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Earlier this month, The New York Times called out Matt McCarthy for supposed errors and misstatements in his new book Odd Man Out: A Year on the Mound with a Minor League Misfit. I must admit, I was convinced. After all, it is The New York Times we’re talking here. They wouldn’t make such an [...]
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Too bad they can’t get rid of some of those annoying supplements that highlight fashion, furnishings, and vacations that “regular” folks can’t afford instead of doing away with Play, the Times‘ sports supplement. If the sports department is the toy store of a newspaper, I guess we won’t be getting much in the way of [...]
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Tresh was one of the last players to bridge the good Yankees to the bad Yankees in the 1960s.
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The Times published two obituaries this week, both a bit odd for a New York paper. Sure, there have been write-ups about athletes, but theytend to be either those who have had some local connection or a giant of their sport. That’s why I found it curious that they chose to include Eddie Brinkman, a [...]
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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.
Turning Two: My Journey to the Top of the World and Back with the New York Mets, by Bud Harrelson with Phil Pepe
Deadball: A Metaphysical Baseball Novel
Congratulations to Scott P. of Rochester, NY, winner of the most recent Facebook Fan drawing, Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game
Next up: Hit by Pitch: Ray Chapman, Carl Mays and the Fatal Fastball
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:
Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball
Amazingly sensitive and surprisingly literate effort by Dickey and Coffey. A
Turning Two: My Journey to the Top of the World and Back with the New York Mets
A serviceable, nostalgic look at the Amazin's in their heyday. B
Calico Joe
Grisham's first baseball novel is emotional, if a bit predictable. B
What I'm reading now
Extra Innings
Damn Yankees: Twenty-Four Major League Writers on the World's Most Loved (and Hated) Team
What's next:
Butterfly Winter
74 | Unique Visitors |
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* Gut yom tov
September 27, 2009 · 0 comments
Jewish for “Happy Holiday,” As Jews around the world gather tonight to mark the holiest day on the calendar, George Vecsey offered this column in today’s Sunday Times. Instead of putting the game at 8 p.m. — prime time, as the networks call it — ESPN and Major League Baseball are accommodating thousands of fans [...]
Tagged as: Boston Red Sox, George Vecsey, New York Times, New York Yankees, Newspapers
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