Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
♦ Lots of baseball broadcasters write books, but they’re usually about the game. Not Steve Physioc of the Kansas City Royals. He’s written a number of novels. ♦ Dan Levitt talks about his new book, Intentional Balk: Baseball’s Thin Line Between Innovation and Cheating, written with Mark Armour on Awful Announcing. Look for my Bookshelf […]
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♦ The Bradenton Times covers Baseball Memories & Dreams, a “best of” compilation of the Hall of Fame’s magazine for members, in this review. ♦ CBR.com deems that “‘The Simpsons’ “Homer at the Bat” is the Definitive Baseball Episode,” further stating that “The classic Simpsons episode in which Mr. Burns replaces his softball team with […]
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The CASEY Award hits the “big 4-oh” Anniversary in 2022. “It seems only appropriate that we should wind up with such an outstanding field of contenders for the CASEY in this milestone year,” said Spitball Editor-in-Chief Mike Shannon. “I think the CASEYs demonstrated long ago that no other sport produces great literature, year in and […]
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A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes. In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast […]
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♦ Now hear this: three author interviews. First, Joe Posnanski discusses The Baseball 100 on KHOU. Then Joe Maddon on his new book on WNEP. ahead of two local signing appearances. Finally, Eric Gray appeared on WBUR to chat about Backyards to Ballparks: More Personal Baseball Stories from the Stands and Beyond. ♦ From Forbes: […]
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Ever notice when a book comes out, some outlets immediately look for one or two negative things the author might write in an attempt to build buzz? Oooh, someone said something about a teammate, owner, or organization (google for news about A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez, by Selena Roberts or The Yankee Years, […]
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One of the things — great or not — about the Internet is the lack of limits on space (for the most part). When writing for a newspapers or magazine (less so in books), you have to be aware of the limited “geography.” That is, there is only so much room available for the story, […]
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A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes. In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast […]
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♦ From Sports Collectors Daily: “Mickey Mantle: A Life In Memorabilia acts as a museum tour through Mantle’s life. It includes items from Lane’s extensive and valuable collection as well as stories from Mantle’s 18-year career. “‘This book is as close as one can get to these artifacts without actually holding them,’ [author Steven] Lane […]
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♦ My review of Tyler Kepner’s The Grandest Stage: A History of the World Series is up on Bookreporter.com. ♦ Joe Maddon’s Try Not to Suck continues to get the biggest buzz for a book that’s not about the World Series. Here’s a piece from the LA Times. ♦ Meanwhile Jeff Pearlman’s new bio, The […]
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I’ve said it time and again here: I am not a huge fan of posting about baseball fiction. I just feel unqualified to opine on the details since I lack the educational background to parse about it with any degree of confidence or even intelligence. That said, when I learned about the topic of The […]
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How to Beat a Broken Game: The Rise of the Dodgers in a League on the Brink, by Pedro Moura. People have been complaining about baseball for as long as there’s been baseball. In doing research for any number of projects, one can look at the archives of local newspapers or The Sporting News or […]
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A History of the World Series, by Tyler Kepner, on Bookreporter.com.
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The latest disappointment of the Mets losing in the Wild Card round after finishing with 101 wins during the regular season brought to mind Devin Gordon’s 2021 book So Many Ways to Lose: The Amazin’ True Story of the New York Mets―the Best Worst Team in Sports. I was in touch with Gordon and he […]
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It wasn’t until I decided to ask Ira Berkow on to discuss his latest book, Baseball’s Best Ever: A Half Century of Covering Hall of Famers, that I remembered that he wrote the foreword to The Jewish Olympics: The History of the Maccabiah Games (which violates one of my own rules for titles: it should […]
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A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes. In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast […]
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is available on Amazon.com,
In my most recent "day job," I was the sports and features editor for a weekly New Jersey newspaper, where I hosted another blog. Busy, busy, busy.
I did a profile piece on the award-winning cartoonist Arnold Roth and he was nice enough to "immortalize" me.
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
The Bookshelf Conversation #153: Paul Aron
October 17, 2022
Kudos to Paul Aron and the decision to name his newest project The Lineup: Ten Books That Changed Baseball. No superlatives, no grandiose claims, but a much more modest approach. And, indeed, these are books that not only changed the sport, but in some cases — as Aron explains both within the pages and our conversation […]
Tagged as: baseball books, Paul Aron
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