Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
For April 29 (yes, April 29, according to the website) Imperfect: An Improbable Life, by Jim Abbot and Tim Brown stands at #16. Driving Mr. Yogi: Yogi Berra, Ron Guidry, and Baseball’s Greatest Gift, by Harvey Araton is at #20. Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball, by R.A. […]
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♦ Tom Hoffarth’s latest: Summer of ’68: The Season that Changed Baseball — And America — Forever, by Tim Wendel. Upshot: “Halberstam-esque.” High praise, indeed. ♦ WBEZ, the NPR presence in Chicago, posted this mini-review of 100 Things Cubs Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. ♦ Similarly, Bronx Baseball Daily posted this review […]
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This isn’t exactly a companion piece to R.A. Dickey’s new book, but Knuckleball!, a 90-minute documentary, is an entry at the Tribecca Film Festival. There’s a free screening tomorrow (April 21) with additional screenings on April 22, 27, and 28. From the official TBB website: “A classic sports story from its glorious highs to its […]
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At least according to discussion from some 50 years ago, according to this piece on The Atlantic website. Needless to say, there are several books that herald the occasion, including, but not limited to: ♦ Fenway Park: A Salute to the Coolest, Cruelest, Longest-Running Major League Baseball Stadium in America ♦ Fenway Park:The Centennial: 100 […]
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♦ The latest on Tom Hoffarth’s 30/30 list: Double No-Hit: Johnny Vander Meer’s History Night Under the Lights, by James W. Johnson. Upshot: “Details come to life here, and thankfully, we find out much more about “The Dutch Master” than a box score can show.”
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The Miami Marlins, apparently. This Forbes piece calls the franchise “The Most Overexposed Team in Sports,” citing recent feature stories in Time magazine, The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, and The New York Times, not to mention the Marlins’ gig as the focus of the new season of HBO’s The Franchise. (It was the Time piece […]
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These programs are supposed to take you “deep inside” the organization’s but I watched the Giants version last year. Meh. Kudos to the team for giving such access. The Guillen suspension for his Castro remarks are already there. HBO couldn’t have known ahead of time how that drama would play out. (Although the cynic in […]
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♦ Tom Hoffarth’s latest in his 30/30 feature: Cuban Star: How One Negro-League Owner Changed the Face of Baseball, by Adrian Burgos, Jr. ♦The Columbus (IN) Republic ran this review of The Might Have Been.
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♦ Tom Hoffarth’s latest 30/30 entry: Ruling Over Monarchs, Giants & Stars: True Tales of Breaking Barriers, Umpiring Baseball Legends and Wild Adventures in the Negro Leagues. ♦ Only a Game host Bill Littlefield offered his thought’s on John Grisham’s Calico Joe (scroll down about half way). Upshot: “some of the baseball elements of Calico […]
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Because you can keep a TV on a bookshelf: Although I actually prefer the shorter version: Love the eye-roll when the Cubs’ fan refers to the “elegantly-coiffed ex-governor.”
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♦ Tom Hoffarth’s latest two entries on his 30/30 feature: The Team That Forever Changed Baseball and America: The 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers, by The Society of American Baseball Research, edited by Lyle Spatz, Maurice Bouchard and Leonard Levin, and Conspiracy of Silence: Sportswriters and the Long Campaign to Desegregate Baseball, by Chris Lamb. Upshots: Dodgers […]
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There was an awful lot of bizzaro “news” following the death of baseball legend Ted Williams in 2002. For those of you unfamiliar with the story, Williams’ son, Ted Jr., who, according to many accounts, was a no-account person with no discernible skills of his own who pushed his ailing dad hard in the memorabilia […]
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♦ The latest in Tom Hoffarth’s 30/30 feature: A People’s History of Baseball, by Mitchell Nathanson. Upshot: “The book jacket says Nathan writes with “passion and occasional outrage.” Sometimes it comes off as more bittnerness [sic] or misdirected anger. ♦ The Chicago-Sun Times posted this review of Grisham’s Calico Joe. Upshot: “In baseball terms, Calico […]
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♦ The Washington Times posted this review of Paul Dickson’s new Bill Veeck bio. ♦ Baseball reflections posted this on R.A. Dickey’s Wherever I Wind Up. ♦ Tom Hoffarth’s livre-du-jour is Damn Yankees: Twenty-Four Major League Writers on the World’s Most Loved (and Hated) Team.
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♦ Day 12 of Tom Hoffarth’s 30/30 project: R.A. Dickey’s Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball.
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Turning Two: My Journey to the Top of the World and Back with the New York Mets, by Bud Harrelson with Phil Pepe. Thomas Dunne Books, 2012. Harrelson’s new book is a bit a throwback. One could easily imagine reading this in the pre-Ball Four era. Other than a scant mention of disappointment for the […]
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♦ Tom Hoffarth’s latest in his 30 books.30 days series: High Fives, Pennant Drives and Fermandomania: A Fan’s History of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Glory Years 1977-1981, by Paul Haddad. ♦They’re not exactly timely, but by waiting more than 40 years since the publication of Jim Bouton’s Ball Four, this review on Paste has a […]
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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
