Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
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I was having coffee with Dave “No Relation” Kaplan yesterday. You may know him from as the former executive director of the Yogi Berra Museum and collaborator on several books with the late Hall of Famer. We were lamenting the passing of the stars from our younger days, such as Hank Aaron, Tom Seaver, […]
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If they ever put this out in a miniature form, tell me where I can get one; it’s going straight on the bookshelf. As per the Los Angeles Times, “Legendary pitcher Sandy Koufax will get a statue at Dodger Stadium.” Wouldn’t be surprised if this shows up in the next edition of Josh Pahigian’s 101 […]
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More appropriately, perhaps, a Tribute from Johnny Bench, who contributed this “Field Notes” piece on some of his experiences on the field via The Players Tribune site, a part of which is his essay on “The Greatest Play I Ever Made.” Surprisingly thoughtful. At last year’s All-Star Game, Bench — along with Willie Mays , Hank […]
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… appears on Bookreporter.com.
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The actor Alan Young passed away at the age of 96 on Thursday. Baseball connection? Several of the Dodgers, including Sandy Koufax, John Roseboro, Willie Davis, and Moose Skowron appeared as themselves, as well as the voice of Vin Scully.
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Dandy Sandy turns 80 today, if you can believe it. Back at the All-Star Game in July, Koufax was anointed — along with Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and Johnny Bench — as one of baseball’s greatest living legends. The MLB Network aired a special moderated by Bob Costas featuring the quarter reminiscing and sharing anecdotes. […]
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It might have been more timely if this had come out in an earlier issue, but John Rosengren, author of Hank Greenberg: The Hero of Heroes, contributed “Heeding a Higher Calling: Jewish Players’ Observance of High Holy Days Shine Spotlight on Religious Holidays” for the current (winter) publication of Memories and Dreams, the magazine of […]
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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 […]
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There’s a cute little three-part video on Youtube titled “When Giants Fan Met Dodgers Fan.’” The premise is a blind date that starts off great, until the two participants realize they each hate the other’s favorite team. They spend the whole time arguing about the merits of their respective teams But here’s the pertinent clip […]
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Mickey Mantle. Sandy Koufax. Two heroic symbols of the Boomer generation. Two flawed figures, one of his own accord, one of poor luck. Jane Leavy has turned both of their stories into best-selling biograophies. So what does she do for an encore? Why not another icon, who wrestled with his own demons, although it didn’t […]
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There are so many books coming from three publishers, I thought to give them a page of their own. McFarland gets high marks for taking on subjects and people that might otherwise go under the radar. That’s not to say that every book is fantastic, all due respects to the writers, but at least they […]
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Any serious scholar of the game knows the work McFarland does in bringing eclectic material to the bookshelf. This fall’s line-up includes: A Calculus of Color: The Integration of Baseball’s American League, by Robert Kuhn McGregor Understanding Baseball: A Textbook, edited by Trey Strecker, et al The Negro Southern League: A Baseball History, 1920-1951, by […]
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How many ballplayers owe their careers to the work of Dr. Jobe, who pioneered the medical technique we know today as “Tommy John Surgery?” Jobe died yesterday at the age of 88. Here’s the NY Times obit by Richard Goldstein, who most recently wrote about the late Eddie O’Brien. Theorists love to talk about how […]
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Talk about your odd couples. A few weeks ago on Kaplan’s Korner, I posted about a Jewish-themed episode of the old Bill Cosby Show. This one titled “Dennis and The Dodger,” doesn’t have a Jewish slant, aside from the appearance of Koufax himself. And this was in 1959, before Koufax began his streak of five […]
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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
My (fantasy) Q&A with Sandy Koufax
January 28, 2018
“Who would be your fantasy interview?” I think I speak for a lot of Jewish fans when I say it would be Sandy Koufax. These are some of the questions I would ask, assuming he was bound to answer honestly and not just sit there sipping his wine. What was really behind the decision not […]
Tagged as: Sandy Koufax
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