Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Sept. 2. Title Rank General Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis 1 The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime by Jason Turbow and Michael Duca 2 The Natural, by Bernard Malamud 3 […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Several “ballplayers with books” mark a birthday today including: Ron Guidry, 60. He published Guidry, his autobio with Peter Golenbock in 1985 and was the subject of Maury Allen’s kids book, Ron Guidry, Louisiana Lightning in 1979. And the recently-retired Lou Pinella, 67, Gudry’s Yankee teammate, has a couple of books himself, including Sweet Lou: Lou […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Aug. 27. Title Rank General Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis 1 The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran, by Dirk Hayhurst 2 The Game from Where I Stand: A Ballplayer’s Inside View, by Doug Glanville […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Haven’t seen too many of ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary series, but happened on this one while flipping through the dial. Jordan Rides the Bus is a nifty piece by Ron (Bull Durham) Shelton that takes a studied look at Michael’s days as member of the Birmingham Barons, a minor team in the Chicago White […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
To Rollie Fingers, who turns 64 today. Rollie’s Follies: A Hall of Fame Revue of Lists and Lore, Stories and Stats from Baseball’s Most Famous Moustache The Rollie Fingers Baseball Bible: Lists and Lore, Stories and Stats (The Rollie Baseball Follies) In addition, new author and ESPN BBTN analyst Doug Glanville has another reason to […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball, and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had, by Edward Achorn (Smithsonian, 2010). If contemporary fans can’t relate when their baseball-loving parents tell them about Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays or, going back farther, when the grandfolks talk about DiMaggio or Jackie Robinson, how do you think they’d react when […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Received the latest (Summer 2010) issue of the BSJ. To be honest, a lot of the statistical stuff therein is a bit over my head/interest level, but there are several book reviews, so it balances out. Among them: Phil Birnbaum on The Bill James Gold Mine 2010 Lee Lowenfish on Satchel: The Life and Times […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
In addition to Dustin Pedroia (below), Yankee rival Jorge Posada turns 39.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
by Joseph Wallace. Touchstone, 2010. Wallace, who’s known more for his coffee table books (The Baseball Anthology: 125 Years of Stories, Poems, Articles, Photographs, Drawings, Interviews, Cartoons, and Other Memorabilia; Grand Old Game: 365 Days of Baseball; World Series: An Opinionated Chronicle; and The Autobiography of Baseball: The Inside Story from the Stars Who Played […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Baseball in Folklore and Fiction, by Tristram Potter Coffin Rvive Books, 2010 Originally published as The Old Ball Game in 1971, The Mudville Heritage considers the hugely different way in which baseball was portrayed in the early to mid half of the 20th century. Coffin, emeritus professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, takes […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Aug. 6. Title Rank General Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis 1 Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball, by Bill Madden 2 Chicago Cubs Cookbook: All-star Recipes from Your Favorite Players 3 The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Mmm, now them’s eats. Cookbooks with a baseball theme isn’t a new concept. Often they’re used as either promotions or fund-raisers, collected by the players’ significant others. Admittedly, some of the items included are basic, common-sense type items; with the exception of Rusty Staub and perhaps a few others, we’re not talking Julia Child here. […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Two of my favorite people — Rob Neyer and author/artist Kadir (We Are the Ship) Nelson met for this brief discussion (with a nod to Monty Python and the Holy Grail). GhostTheory.com posted this entry on Field of Screams: Haunted Tales from the Baseball Diamond, the Locker Room and Beyond, by Mickey Bradley and Dan […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
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
