Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
The New York Times Book Review published this article by David Leonhardt, who writes a weekly economics column for the paper. His upshot in this full-page review: Despite its engaging moments, though, “Sixty Feet, Six Inches” is mostly unsatisfying, because Gibson and Jackson play their roles as the grizzled veterans too predictably…. The men go […]
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again, I wonder how these guys, from one show to another, manage to kep the information fresh. I can just imagine the host of a program that appears later listen to a previous program and muttering at the host, “Bastard! I was going to ask that.” Anyway, Gibson and Jackson appeared on NPR’s Weekend Edition […]
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My regular Fall baseball book roundup — all revolving around the World Series — was posted to Bookreporter.com this evening. Titles include: The Machine, by Joe Posnanski Game Six, by Mark Frost Perfect, by Lew Paper The Original Curse, by Sean Deveney The First Fall Classic, by Mike Vaccaro The careful reader will not I […]
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This week in baseball books, featuring the best-sellers according to Amazon.com on Friday, October 23. Title Rank General Now I Can Die in Peace: How The Sports Guy Found Salvation Thanks to the World Champion (Twice!) Red Sox, by Bill Simmons 1 Sixty Feet, Six Inches: A Hall of Fame Pitcher & a Hall of […]
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Lew Paper, that is, author of the new book on Don Larsen’s World series no-hitter. Bill Littlefield offered this commentary on the Oct. 17 episode of Only a Game: In a new book misleadingly titled Perfect: Don Larsen’s Miraculous World Series Game and the Men Who Made It Happen, Lew Paper, the author, tells a […]
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Words, actually. And days. In recognition of the post-season, the Brian Lehrer Show on NPR had two days of baseball terms, courtesy of Erin McKean of wordnik.com. The program was so nice, they ran it twice, first on Oct. 20and an “extra innings” segment the following day. McKean, who publishes Verbatim Magaizne (to which I […]
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Looks like Jayson Stark will be coming out with a new edition next year. More titles about the Phillies include: View from the Booth: Four Decades with the Phillies, by Chris Wheeler Phillies Confidential: The Untold Inside Story of the 2008 Championship Season, “by” Gary Matthews More Than Beards, Bellies and Biceps: The Story of […]
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Several new titles consider World Series past. Two — by Joe Posnanski and Mark Frost — deal with the 1975 Red Sox-Reds contest, which was highlighted by Carlton Fisk’s game-winner in the sixth game, the closest to that point Boston had come to winning a title since 1918. The next most recent is Perfect, by […]
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Tis the season. As the summer game segues into fall’s finales, no less than five titles deal with the World Series, including two about the 1975 games between the Red Sox and Reds, one about Don Larsen’s 1956 perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers, and But the one that goes back the furthest is The […]
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This week in baseball books, featuring the best-sellers according to Amazon.com on Friday, October 16. Title Rank General Sixty Feet, Six Inches: A Hall of Fame Pitcher & a Hall of Fame Hitter Talk about How the Game is Played, by Bob Gibson, Reggie Jackson, and Lonnie Wheeler 1 The Machine: A Hot Team, a […]
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by Brian Biegel. Crown, 2009. Miracle Ball is at once a sweet and haunting book. The premise has the author, whose day job is that of an independent filmmaker, on an obsessive quest to find the whereabouts of an/or ownership of the ball hit by Bobby Thomson in the 1951 playoff game against the Brooklyn […]
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So the playoffs are set: Yankees vs. Angeles, Dodgers vs. Phillies. The Yankees will try for their 27th pennant. That would pretty much qualify them for a dynasty, wouldn’t it? So in that spirit, I dug up this old iece, taken from a larger review for BookPage in April, 2000. As the new millennium approached, […]
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From Newsday, this review of Lew Paper’s book on Don Larsen’s World Series perfect game. Jimmy Scott, of Jimmy Scott’s High and Tight, wrote this review on Satchel, by Larry Tye. Two more sites on baseball cards: The Topps Archives (non-baseball material as well), and another devoted specifically to the 1980 Topps set. The event […]
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Tom Verducci on the how the return of Pedro Martinez helped propel the Phillies into the postseason. Joe Sheehan on the Cardinals-Dodgers match-up. The Twins-Tigers hadn’t played at the time SI went to press, which explains this piece by Sheehan.
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So I went back to the baseball publications that came out prior to opening day. These included only national publications (i.e., no newspapers that might show favoritism for the home team): Baseball America, USA Today Sports Weekly, Sports Illustrated, ESPN the Magazine, Athlon, Lindy’s, The Sporting News (which took over my old pals, Street and […]
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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
*TWIBB — October 9
October 9, 2009
This week in baseball books, featuring the best-sellers according to Amazon.com on Friday, October 9. Title Rank General The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series: The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds, by Joe Posnanski 1 Game Six: Cincinnati, Boston, and the 1975 World Series: The Triumph of America’s […]
Tagged as: baseball books
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