Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Yay! The April 4 issues of Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine finally gets down to bidness! Cover Cover price $5.99 $4.99 Can I read it on-line (no smartphone apps or iPads gizmos)? Yes, but without the images. Only if you’re an ESPN “Insider” (subscription) Main Features “Radar Love,” by Tom Verducci — An examination […]
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Just like the vitamins, only with baseball books. From Tom Hoffarth of the Los Angeles Daily News: Today: Baseball America Prospect Handbook 2011 Previous entries include: Day 2: A Band of Misfits: Tales of the 2010 San Francisco Giants Day 1: Donnie Baseball: The Definitive Biography of Don Mattingly
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Just like the vitamins, only with baseball books. April is that time of year when our old friend Tom — who writes about sports and sports media for the Los Angeles Daily News — does his “30 baseball books in 30 days” bit. And, just like last year, we’ll be posting his considerations within these […]
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Went over to the local Barnes and Noble on my lunch hour. I always take a look at the “remainder” table to see if there’s a possibility I missed seeing some relatively recent baseball title. The answer is almost always “no,” unless it’s the occasional book produced especially for the store. These are usually coffee-table […]
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Since I wasn’t on the What’s on Second Internet radio show this week, I had to get my “me” fix in somehow. My ode to [now former] Mets pitcher Ollie Perez was included in Bardball.com’s 2010’s Greatest Hits!, a collection of baseball poetry. So it’s Frost, Longfellow, Kaplan. End of story. That’s all you need. […]
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Since there haven’t been any books written about him. Yet. The NY Mets’ likable Ike Davis turns 24 today. I received a shipment of cards yesterday including this one. This wasn’t Davis’ first card. Nowadays they have prospect cards, minor league star cards, etc., in multiple incarnations from multiple manufacturers. When I was a kid […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, March 18, at 4 p.m. Title Rank General Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game, by John Thorn 1 The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First, by Jonah Keri […]
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How great must it be for John Thorn these days. Not only is his new book, Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game, getting good reviews early on, but he was recently appointed Major League baseball’s official historian. Here are just a few of the items that have hit […]
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With the NCAA taking flight, the March 21 issue of Sports Illustrated offers just one baseball item: Joe Posnanski on the plight of the (his beloved) KC Royals. Now last week, that was a different story, and my apologizes for not reporting in a timely manner. Joe DiMaggio graces the cover, to mark the 70th […]
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The Bookshelf topic on the March 14 Internet broadcast of What’s on Second was some events in baseball history that are marking milestone anniversaries in 2011. Among them: Hank Greenberg’s 100th birthday Hank Greenberg: The Hero Who Didn’t Want to Be One (Jewish Lives), by Kurlansky Hammerin’ Hank Greenberg, by Sommer Joe DiMaggio;’s 56-game hitting […]
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The very fine Pitchers and Poets site, declared March 7-13 as “Scorekeeping Week,” featuring a series of entries about the fine art of the craft. I still have the program from my first game, a 1966 summer day affair between the Mets and Pirates. It’s full of “FO’ and “GB” and “K.” What can I […]
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Baseball: How To Play The Game: The Official Playing and Coaching Manual of Major League Baseball. Universe, 2011. This colorful and informative book comes out just in time for spring training (although many schools have already started their season). With text by Pete Williams, the large-format paperback covers all aspects of the game, from picking […]
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As I’ve said in the past, I greatly enjoy the annual baseball glossy magazines, despite their increasing anachronistic qualities. But like a parent of a child in a school play, my major complaint is that thesy don’t pay enough attention to my team. Enter Maple Street Press. Their slogan: “1 Team. 128 Pages.” Sweet. I […]
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Intro: As previously stated, the recent election of Robert Alomar and Bert Blyleven got me to thinking: how many Hall of Famers have had books written about them or penned their own stories. Here are the results. Again, this is not an all-inclusive list; almost all juvenile titles have been omitted. * * * Hal […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Feb 25, at 1:30 p.m. Title Rank General Baseball Prospectus 2011 1 Baseball America 2011 Prospect Handbook: The 2011 Expert Guide to Baseball Prospects and MLB Organization Rankings 2 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis (Kindle version) 3 Moneyball: The […]
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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
