Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Okay, it’s been at least five minutes since we’ve heard anything about Jose Hemingway. For those of you who need a fix, here are a few crumbs: The Week is an interesting publication, kind of like a condense Reader’s Digest offering snippets from other publications on the major events of the last seven days. As […]
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Titles include: The 33-Year-Old Rookie, by Coste The Dark Side of the Diamond, by Abrams My Bat Boy Days, by Garvey Playing with the Enemy, by Moore
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Gene Carney wrote this review of the new bio on Eddie “Cocky” Collins. I always found it bizarre that of all the actors John Sayles could have found to portray the second baseman in the film version of Eight Men Out, he chose Bill Irwin, who at the time was known more for his silent […]
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The Hall of Fame catcher turns 54 today. Carter was a “like him, hate him” kind of guy. There are those who said he was too eager to smile for the camera. For me, as a fan of the Mets, he was a savior, one of the tools helping propel them to some quality years […]
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You know you’ve made it when your book appears in a Sunday Times review. In fact, I wonder if there have been studies that have quantified in cold numbers what such an “endorsement” means for sales. One quibble: Olney, a sports writer for the Times and an ESPN commentator, spends too much time talking about […]
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One of the few books that dares to have an open mind about the steroid scandals. From Sports of Boston.com. Uphsot: If you are convinced Barry Bonds used steroids, read this book. It is going where other books have not gone before and that alone makes it worth picking up. Bonds is a horrible human […]
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If the reviewer had trouble with this, wait ’til he gets a hold of Derek Gentile’sBaseball’s Best 1,000. Imagine being that final player who made the cut. He can still say he was considered better than the other 19,000 or so players who qualified under Gentile’s guidelines. I’ll be doing a review of this one […]
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The Sacramento Bee’s Bruce Dancis elaborates a bit on the book marking the 100th anniversary of the game’s unofficial anthem, “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.” The Houston Chronicle also takes an in-depth look at the iconic ditty.
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This overview of lots of new titles by Bruce Dancis leads off with books about the scandals of the game, new and old, and includes: Facing Clemens: Hitters on Confronting Baseball’s Most Intimidating Pitcher Asterisk: Home Runs, Steroids, and the Rush to Judgment Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars, and the Battle To Save Baseball (surprisingly […]
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The North County Times of California published this review/profile on the new autobiography of Jerry Coleman. Ted Williams got the major press for serving in both WWII and the Korean War, but Coleman, the second baseman for the New York Yankees during their post-war juggernaut run, was right there, too. After his playing career, he […]
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They’re coming in fast and furious now. Selena Roberts on SI.com writes that Canseco’s allegations about other players who use warrant further scrutiny. “It’s up to baseball’s new detective squad to unearth the truth about A-Rod, about Ordonez, about their owners, before Canseco makes it a trilogy.” Chris Olds of the Orlando Sentinel calls Vindicated […]
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for FREE at the Sporting News‘ website. Will this staple of statistics fans for generations be available next year? That’s a good question, since American City Business Journals — Street and Smith’s parent company — took over “The Bible of baseball” recently. Stay tuned.
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How come we’re not hearing much about Vindicated these days? Just a week ago it was such hot news. Now, nothing. I imagine I’ll be reviewing it at some point, but so far I haven’t seen it among any of the baseball book reviews published so far.
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Two reviews from the book industry publication: The Crowd Sounds Happy: A Story of Love, Madness and Baseball, by Nicholas Dawidof (a “starred” review) and Working at the Ballpark: The Fascinating Lives of Baseball People—from Peanut Vendors and Broadcasters to Players and Managers, by Tom Jones (a different one, I’m sure).
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With the dozens of new titles out each year, it’s interesting to see if there’s a consensus among the major media as to which titles to promote. I’ll be looking into that further a bit later, when more data comes in. For now, here’s the take from the Sun-Times: Change Up: An Oral History of […]
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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
