Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
I am one of those unfortunates whose birthday falls around the time of another traditional gift-giving holiday. We often get short-shrifted. Boo hoo, right?
Well, here’s a way to celebrate the baseball-loving pater: Ballpark Digest just announced a BOGO sale on books. See the details here.
{ 0 comments }
1964: Sandy Koufax tosses his third no-hitter.
1968: Don Drysdale, Koufax’s long-time teammate, throws his sixth consecutive shutout, en route to 58 2/3 straight innings without allowing a run.
{ 0 comments }
A couple of days ago was the anniversary of Cal Ripken Jr. beginning his iron man streak.
Today it’s Lou Gehrig, who played the first of 2,130 straight in 1925 when he flied out as a pinch-hitter against Walter Johnson in a 5-3 loss to the Washington Senators.
{ 0 comments }
In 1982, Cal Ripken Jr. begins his streak of 2,632 consecutive games, a record that will never be broken. He went 0-2 with a walk in a 6-0 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.
{ 0 comments }
A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“).
In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast one by including a book in a category in which it should not be listed (in my opinion). For example, The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect has appeared on Amazon’s BBS list. “Why” is a good question. There might be a smattering of the national pastime in it, but not enough to make it a baseball book per se (again, IMO).
Finally, adults only here. That is, no books for younger readers (i.e., 12 and under). Also no “adult” adult books (romance/erotic fiction that features baseball as a theme although goodness knows there are a bunch of those out there).
So, with all that said…
The links under the authors’ names will take you to the Bookshelf Conversations I did with them. An asterisk denotes a book making its debut on the BBS list. And a Ω (omega) means it’s an award winner.
PRINT
Once again, the Amazon charts have been changed, so no Kindle or audio book lists, according to ranking.
Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 2,902,417 (#70 in Literary Bibliographies & Indexes) overall in books; last time, 2,857,419. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 2,178,265; last time, 1,747,913.
Shameless self-promotion: if you’re looking for some good baseball reading during this down time, why not pick up a copy of 501? It’s like the dictionary; it has the other books in it, which reminds me of one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite shows.
A reminder: There’s an Excel “checklist” of the books list in 501. If you’re interested in keeping track of how many you have read or own, drop me a line.
If you have read either of my books, thanks, hope you enjoyed it, and please consider writing an Amazon review; it’s never too late.
{ 0 comments }
Those who have been following this blog for any length of time know about my love of the movies. So it was almost with a squeal of delight that I found this post on nofilmschool.com, “Read the Best baseball Movie: Inspire your sports movie with some of these wonderful scripts,” by Jason Hellerman.
Included in this collection are screenplays from such notable works as Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, Moneyball, A League of Their Own, Sugar, and Major League. Each film comes with an explanation of “Why it’s great” and the awards they’ve won. These are not just the scripts, but stage direction and settings as well. A real find.
Additional links at the end of the article take the cinephile to stories on
And as a bonus, the above image from the “There’s no crying in baseball” scene came from this article from Mental Floss, “25 Fun Facts about A League of Their Own.”
{ 0 comments }
See below for an update.
A post on Facebook reminded me that Moe Berg, one of the most interesting characters to ever don spikes, died on this date in 1972.
The number of languages Berg could speak varied. Casey Stengel once supposedly, “He can speak seven languages but can’t hit in any of ’em.”
There have been several books both non-fiction and novels, about Berg including
In addition, there was The Spy Behind Home Plate, a documentary by Aviva Kemper, as well as a feature film based on the Dawidoff book, incongruously starring Paul Rudd in the title role (Berg was 6’1″; Rudd is 5’10”).
UPDATE: I have since been informed that ESPN aired Spyball, a 30/30 documentary about Berg, featuring a number of items of Berg memorabilia from the Steve Mandel collection. You can see the 18-plus minute program — narrated by Bill “The Spaceman” Lee — here, via Facebook Reels.
{ 0 comments }
My wife has been in a number of book groups over the past twenty or so years. Once a year, the husbands are invited to participate. In all that time, we’ve only discussed one book about sports (if you consider Lance Armstrong’s It’s Not About the Bike a sports book).
So this story from the Washington Post — “The Nats’ clubhouse book club is on a journey to Middle-earth this season” — caught my eye. Even though their book of choice is part of the Lord of the Rings franchise, it still fits here because it’s “baseball” and “books.”
{ 0 comments }
When I was about 10 years old, I got into a heap of trouble because I spent some of the change from an errand on a copy of The Sporting News and Baseball Digest. Total cost: $1. In retrospect, I understand the difficult financial situation my family was in at the time, but at that age, I didn’t.
The Sporting News is now longer with us in print form, but thankfully, Baseball Digest is, albeit not in its traditional “digest” trim.
But the essence of the oldest existing baseball publication — dating back to 1942 — remains the same and it was fun chatting about it with its current editor-in-chief, Rick Cerrone.
Any student of the game — as well as sports journalism — will enjoy BD. After a hiatus of several years, I recently resubscribed, primarily to get access to the wonderful archives, which offers every article since the magazine’s launch more than 80 years ago. To see — almost hear — the stories written in the style of the times, is especially fascinating to me. But then, I’m just a magazine nerd. The only thing I miss is the advertisements. How I wish I could go back in time and get a set of 1975 Topps for $13.90. Or an official MLB warmup jacket for $23.95 (plus $2 shipping; this prices appeared in the December 1977 issue featuring George Foster on the cover). Thankfully I still have dozens of hard copies of the Digest to remind me.
And here’s the audio version:
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
{ 0 comments }
Editor’s note: In my haste, I posted this a day early, reinforcing the question, “Where does the time go?”
In 2006, Barry Bonds surpasses Babe Ruth on the all-time home run list as he blasts #715 in a 6-3 win over the visiting Colorado Rockies.
Love Me, Hate Me: Barry Bonds and the Making of an Antihero, by Jeff Pearlman (2006)
{ 0 comments }
In 2017, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Hall of Fame’s summer Author Series following the publication of Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War. I always love visiting Cooperstown. Many years ago, my wife — a veterinarian — had an interview with a practice up there. How cool would that have been?
Well, it’s time for the 2025 “All-Star” event. This year the lineup of writers include:
The schedule for the summer includes, in order of appearance:
A note: the Godfrey book, which was published in 2008, is listed on Amazon for an amazing $500.
I hope to have as many of these authors as possible on for Bookshelf Conversations.
{ 0 comments }
A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“).
In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast one by including a book in a category in which it should not be listed (in my opinion). For example, The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect has appeared on Amazon’s BBS list. “Why” is a good question. There might be a smattering of the national pastime in it, but not enough to make it a baseball book per se (again, IMO).
Finally, adults only here. That is, no books for younger readers (i.e., 12 and under). Also no “adult” adult books (romance/erotic fiction that features baseball as a theme although goodness knows there are a bunch of those out there).
So, with all that said…
The links under the authors’ names will take you to the Bookshelf Conversations I did with them. An asterisk denotes a book making its debut on the BBS list. And a Ω (omega) means it’s an award winner.
PRINT
Once again, the Amazon charts have been changed, so no Kindle or audio book lists, according to ranking.
Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 2,857,419 overall in books; last time, 2,840,558. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 1,747,913; last time, 1,295,164.
Shameless self-promotion: if you’re looking for some good baseball reading during this down time, why not pick up a copy of 501? It’s like the dictionary; it has the other books in it, which reminds me of one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite shows.
A reminder: There’s an Excel “checklist” of the books list in 501. If you’re interested in keeping track of how many you have read or own, drop me a line.
If you have read either of my books, thanks, hope you enjoyed it, and please consider writing an Amazon review; it’s never too late.
{ 0 comments }
is available on Amazon.com,
In a former life, I was the sports and features editor for a weekly New Jersey newspaper, where I hosted an award-winning bog about Jews and Sports.
I did a profile piece on the legendary cartoonist Arnold Roth and he was very generous in immortalizing me in this caricature.
My article on Sandy Koufax in the 1965 World Series appears in
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
