Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
The “personal edition.” I had two reviews appear last week: The Closer, by Mariano Rivera with Wayne Coffey on Bookreporter.com The Cubs Quotient: How the Chicago Cubs Changed the World, by Scott Rowan in ForeWord Magazine.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The top ten baseball books as per Amazon.com. Caveat 1: Print editions only (at least for now); because I’m old school. Caveat 2: Since the rankings are updated every hour, these lists might not longer be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them. But it’ll be close enough for government work. Caveat 3: […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Baseball may be fading as a spectator sport, but there doesn’t seem to be concomitant drop-off when it comes to books about the national (passed) pastime. This piece by Bryant Curtis on Grantland includes dozens of titles, past and present, for your reading pleasure. It’s an insightful overview of the genre of baseball publishing, with […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
No offense to Woodstock. To honor Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, MLB has commissioned a series of statuettes depicting several Peanuts characters in baseball motif. The characters, which sell for $24.99, include good ol’ Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy, Peppermint Patty, Marcie, Schroeder, Pig Pen, Franklin, and Belle. The 2014 All-Star game will be hosted by […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The Clermont Sun (Batavia, Ohio) ran this review of Bill Madden’s 1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever. Upshot: “[T]his is not a book for casual ball-watchers or followers of modern baseball. No, it’s for fans who love the history of the game. For that […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
(And no, we’re not talking about Superman here.) Congratulations to Teddie A. of Lutherville, MD, winner of last week’s book, Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of ’76, by Dan Epstein. This week’s offering is Jonah Keri’s Up, Up, and Away: The Kid, the Hawk, Rock, Vladi, Pedro, le Grand Orange, […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
First of all, congratulations to Josh R. of Madison, NJ, winner of last week’s book, Doc: A Memoir, by Dwight Gooden and Ellis Henican. This week’s offering is (another copy of) Stars and Strikes, Dan Epstein’s critically-acclaimed look at the national pastime at the nation’s bicentennial. Changing up the “rules” a bit: This will henceforth […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Don’t forget, this week’s Conversation features Dwier Brown, who portrayed Ray Kinsella’s “ghost-player” father, John, in Field of Dreams. Wanted to give this plenty of time to circulate for Father’s Day. His indigog campaign is no longer active — he made more than the goal — but I still think this video is worth watching. […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The top ten baseball books as per Amazon.com. Caveat 1: Print editions only (at least for now); I’m old fashioned that way. Caveat 2: Since the rankings are updated every hour, these lists might not longer be 100 percent accurate by the time you read it. But it’ll be close enough for government work. Caveat […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Jon Hamm of Mad Men fame plays the lead role of JB Bernstein in the new baseball film Million Dollar Arm (although I notice on the IMDB page that the character’s last name isn’t included. Hmmm). MDA is based on the true story of a contest whereby two young athletes from India try to get […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
As you probably know, there’s a podcast component to this blog on which I chat with authors, artists, filmmakers, etc. I sometimes get first-timers who reach out to me because they may not have the cachet to get “real media” attention. I know I went through that with 501 Baseball Books. Just about every author […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Does a review carry more weight if it’s done by A Hall of Famer-award winning writer? In this case, Paul Hogan who received the Spink Award for 2013 for contributions to baseball writing published this one about Tim Hornbaker’s Turning the Black Sox White: The Misunderstood Legacy of Charles A. Comiskey on the MLB website. […]
{ 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
