Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
The first of what will probably be several lists/suggestions: Linda Holmes, over at Monkey See, the pop culture blog for NPR, offered a selection of five sports books for the summer, including Stan Musial: An American Life by George Vecsey. And, what the heck, there’s enough info to consider Scorecasting a baseball book, too. This […]
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Dan Gutman has created a series of pretty good kids’ books with the premise of a boy who can travel back through time to meet some of the greatest players in the game, among them Honus Wagner, Mickey Mantle, Shoeless Joe Jackson, and Babe Ruth, among others. Now, I don’t know the whole story here, […]
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Well, that week off didn’t go exactly as I’d hoped. I really expected to get a lot more done vis-a-vis 501Baseball Books. A trip to the main branch of the NY Public Library turned out to be disappointing although going into the city did give me the opportunity to spend some time with Jay Goldberg, […]
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The award-winning sportswriter for The New York Times, will discuss the sports culture and his career experiences — which actually began with an eventful meeting with Mickey Mantle —- followed by a signing of his memoir, An Accidental Sportswriter, at the Yogi Berra Museum tomorrow (July 16) at 5:30. Books available for purchase at the […]
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Winning, Losing, and the Remembrance of Things Past, by Lee Congdon. St. Augustine’s Press I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this one. A) I’m on vacation and working as much as possible on my own project, and B) I was fairly disappointed with the book. When I scanned the upcoming titles […]
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As long-time readers of the Bookshelf know, I feel awkward when it comes to reviewing fiction. It’s so subjective. I like dogs and you’re a cat person or I like vanilla and you can’t stand it. I’m also of a mind that if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything (although that philosophy kind […]
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On this date: In 1941 at the All-Star Game at Briggs Stadium, Ted Williams, hitting .405 at the break, homers off Chicago Cubs P Claude Passeau with two out and two on in the ninth inning to give the American League a dramatic 7 – 5 victory. (Relevant title: The Midsummer Classic: The Complete History […]
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As I mentioned recently, HBO will air a documentary on Curt Flood on July 13. That same night, Showtime will launch its new series, The Franchise: A Season with the San Francisco Giants. You can watch a “full episode preview” here (although a disclaimer on the site says it has been edited from its “original […]
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As of this writing, Derek Jeter stands just four hits away from the magical 3,000. ESPN is working on Derek Jeter 3K, a “documentary” “Set to Air Just Weeks After 3,000th Hit,” according to a press release. Can the souvenir t-shirts, caps, etc. be far behind? The name seems like a natural for a video […]
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Bookshelf shorthand for Take Me Out to The Ball Game, as per Baseball-Reference.com’s Bullpen: To honor the lyricist of Take Me Out to the Ballgame, Jack Norworth Day is celebrated at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. Neither Norworth nor his partner Albert Von Tilzer, who wrote the music, had ever seen a game when they created […]
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Two Men, One Call, and a Game for Baseball History by Armando Galarraga and Jim Joyce, with Daniel Paisner. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2011 One of the highlights of the 2010 Major League season was something that didn’t happen. Armando Galarraga, a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, did not get his perfect game — a no-hit, […]
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Michael Sokolove has cover story honors for the Sunday Magazine, which looks at Derek Jeter as the poster boy for aging athletes — and not necessarily in a good way. Man, I wish I could be 37 again. I wish I could remember 37 again. In a related note, here’s a look at the “decline” […]
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Joe Posnanski profiles the Blue Jays’ Jose Bautista. Albert Chen on the perils of young stud pitchers.
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“Ish” because I originally wrote about Robert Lipsyte’s new memoir for Bookreporter.com.
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The SI curse returns? Maybe it’s a reformed curse, since Derek Jeter wasn’t actually on the cover, but Tom Verducci’s article starts, “Three Grand,” off “Sometime in the next week Derek Jeter could become the third-youngest player, and the first Yankee, to reach 3,000 hits. The road to that milestone was a simple one—until it […]
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Congrats to Andrew Milner, this month’s winner of the Facebook friend giveaway: Baseball Is . . .: Defining the National Pastime, edited by Paul Dickson.
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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
