Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Oh “great”; here we go again. Although the author doesn’t employ “greatest” or “best” in his title, The Last Great Pennant Race does have connotations that there haven’t been any since. I’m guessing thousands, if not millions, of fans would beg to differ.
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The Wall Street Journal also ran this review by Pete Hausler of the new bio on the Yog by Carlo Devito. In sifting through [more than 4,000 sources], Mr. DeVito makes what seems initially like a strange choice: He includes many stories, anecdotes, and quotes that are now widely considered to be apocryphal (his word). […]
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Baseball’s Grand (and not-so-grand) Finales, by Bill Chuck and Jim Kaplan (Acta Sports, 2008). Interesting in concept, but falling short on execution, the authors no doubt wanted to convey the feelings of exhilaration (for the winners) and agony (for the losers). Chuck and Kaplan (no relation) lead off with a chapter on pennant races and, […]
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Recent baseball segments on NPR programs include: A Man and His Mitt: A love Story, All Things Considered, March 28. The page includes the essay, which appears in the new anthology Anatomy of Baseball Also on March 28, The Leonard Lopate Show asked the question “Are Baseball Players Worth Their Salaries?“ League Catches Fans Using […]
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The “spring edition” of my semi-annual Bookreporter.com baseball review roundup takes an “anti-Vindicated” spin, concentrating on books that look at the good behind the game, including: But didn’t We Have Fun? An Informal History of Baseball’s Pioneer Era, 1843-1870 My Bat Boy Days: Lessons I Learned from the Boys of Summer 101 Baseball Places to […]
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Time to play catch-up: From a rival site about baseball book reviews, this piece on Hammerin’ Hank, George Almighty and The Say Hey Kid (another of those books that uses words like “greatest” and “forever” in its title). An oldie, but good: this review of The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, by Douglass Wallop, […]
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by Steve Johnson, as critiqued in the Gary (IN) Post-Tribune. Upshot: Chicago Cubs fans will soon receive an opportunity to enjoy a gem that will give them an appreciation of the history and heritage of one of the country’s most beloved sports franchises.
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The LiterateLives blog highlights two baseball titles for young adult readers: Mike Lupica’s The Big Field, and Six Innings, by James Preller.
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The Phillies catcher/author has the best-selling baseball book at the moment, according to Amazon.com. The only other baseball title is Cubs Forever: Memories from the Men Who Lived Them, by Bob Vorwald (not bad considering it’s not even in stock yet.) Coste’s auto-bio, The 33-Year-Old Rookieis ranked #1 in biographies & memoirs/biographies/baseball; History/United States/State & […]
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It’s not often you scoop The New York Times. Back in November of ’07, I wrote this review on Mike Vacarro’s 1941: The Greatest Year in Sports in which I wrote, “Of course, there’s always a problem, especially in the world of sports, of declaring anything ‘the greatest.’ But it does make for some interesting reflection […]
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This list appeared on the SABR listserve (?). Thanks, to Greg Spira for compiling this extensive collection. Some of these review may be duplicate of what I’ve already posted and I have made no changes in style or contents to his list. “Links to many, many reviews (not features) of new baseball books reviews […]
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From Salon.com’s resident sports guy King Kaufman (I’d like to see his birth certificate), this review/profile of Neyer and his latest.
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From The Wall Street Journal. Sure it covers other spors, too, but baseball comes first. “Former Popular Mechanics staffer and frequent contributor Frank Vizard admits to gravitating toward baseball, confessing in his introduction, ‘If Popular Mechanics can be said to have a favorite sport, it would be baseball, as that game has received the most […]
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Eric Seidman, a senior at Penn State, has written Bridging the Statistical Gap, which “takes readers inside the sport’s box scores and stat sheets,” according to this article in the university’s Daily Collegian Online. The book is expected to be released in May. Some topics include: Great Batting Average Debate: What batting average does and […]
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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 […]
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There are still a few places that Josh Pahigian, author of (The Lyons Press) has yet to visit. Three are in Hawaii and Alaska, which is easy to understand. But how could he miss The Baseball Mud Site in Burlington County, NJ? Maybe it’s his busy schedule. Between teaching writing at the University of New […]
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From the NovelJourney blog, this Q&A with the author of Safe at Home, a story about “a sportswriter, a black baseball player, and the cast of characters that surrounds them when the minor league color line is broken in a small Southern town.” You can learn more about the book from the author’s Web site.
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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
