Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
The 2012 Hall of Fame inductions are just around the corner and this is the time of year the sportswriters and fans jump on their soapboxes to rail against the perceived injustices against those players who just fall outside the voters’ foul lines. Organizations such as The Baseball Reliquary thumb their collective noses by host […]
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Maybe it’s just the sports new cycles, but it seems there was a lot of emphasis on how young many of this year’s All-Stars were, juxtaposed with Chipper Jones, who is probably making his last appearance in the summer classic. (Did anyone else think his locker room “pep talk” was uncomfortable and stagey?) It occurred […]
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* A couple of reviews on John Grisham’s Calico Joe, one yea (“Calico Joe is his first baseball themed book and it didn’t disappoint.”), one nay (“Grisham’s work lacks the meat and potatoes to satisfy this reader’s appetite for page-turning substance. It’s a slim book that perhaps would have made a much better short story […]
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I wanted to bring your attention to two authors who have pledged portions of their book sales towards helping worthy causes. * James Bailey, author of the baseball novel, The Greatest Show on Dirt, is teaming up with Books For Troops, Inc., a volunteer group that sends care packages of books to soldiers stationed in […]
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Borrowing a bit from the flash mob phenomenon, here is a collection pf review on Bruce Spitzer’s historical fiction about a “reanimated” Ted Williams. The books were offered gratis in exchange for the readers’ comments. The views expressed here are solely theirs; I have not edited any of the contributions, save for the Bookshelf style. […]
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Actually, it should be “My night in the Excelsior section.” As per a previous entry, I experienced the Friday Mets-Yankees game at CitiField in a different way, trying to take it in fresh from reading Arnold Hano’s classic title. In the margins of my Mets program (still a bargain at $5, by the way), I […]
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I was doing one of my regular searches to see what’s coming down the pike vis-a-vis baseball titles. One thing that stood out because the covers were very similar was a number of books that look like this. — The artwork looks like it comes right out of a generic stock photo site. The publishers […]
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♦ James Bailey posted this review of Baseball Prospectus’ Extra Innings: More Baseball Between the Numbers from the Team at Baseball Prospectus. Upshot: “Overall, this is a satisfying and thought-stoking release, with much of it coming from a different angle than you might be accustomed to given the heavy dependence in most sabermetric resources on […]
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♦ You Stink: Terrible Teams and Pathetic Players got a stinky review from the Asbury Park Press. After reading this one, I don’t think my reviews are that harsh. At least I’ve never used the word “puerile.” More info on the book. And its official blog. It’s kind of funny. There’s a page on the […]
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Artist Andy Jurinko loved baseball. He was especially enamored of players from what he considered a “Golden Era.” He published Heart Of The Game: An Illustrated Celebration Of The American League, 1946-1960 and 2004 and his new title, Golden Boys: Baseball Portraits, 1946-1960 was published posthumously. Jurinko died of pancreatic cancer in February 2011 at […]
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Baseball artist Graig Kreindler alerted his Facebook friends of a new item produced by the US Postal service: From the USPS website: Play Ball! is the perfect keepsake for both baseball fans and stamp enthusiasts. The 8½” x 11”, 40-page book is filled with the vivid paintings of artist Graig Kreindler, whose extraordinarily detailed work […]
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JewishBaseballNews posted this review about Third Base For Life: A Memoir of Fathers, Sons, and Baseball, by Joshua Berkowitz. The book’s official website carries a few more reviews. Speaking of Father’s Day, here’s a piece from the Deseret News on Trading Manny: How a Father and Son Learned to Love Baseball Again, bu Jim Gullo, […]
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S.L. Price gives Texas Rangers slugger Josh Hamilton the star treatment with an in-depth profile. Cross your fingers that no ill befalls the outfielder, as was the case for Matt Kemp a few weeks ago. Price was the guest on a recent Inside Sports Illustrated podcast to talk about the background of his story (the […]
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♦ The Wilmington Star News posted this review of James Bailey’s novel Bull Durham. Upshot: “The Greatest Show on Dirt will appeal to any hardcore reader of box scores who doesn’t mind the feel of wooden bleachers and isn’t put off by tobacco chaws.” ♦ This review of Robert Fitts’ Baseball, Espionage, & Assassination During […]
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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
Bits and pieces
July 10, 2012
* John Rocker‘s memoir is not exactly new but it’s still getting some buzz. Whether or not it’s good is besides the point. I think a lot of people want to know if he’s as big a train wreck as he came off in that Sports Illustrated piece in 1999. * Dennis Anderson sent me […]
Tagged as: John Rocker, Sports Illustrated
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