Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
July 19, 2010
Apropos of my recent review of 7: The Mickey Mantle Novel, author Peter Golenbock was kind enough to answer a few questions –on his birthday, no less — about the controversial project. * * * Bookshelf: After all those non-fiction projects, what was it that prompted to to venture into a different genre? PG: I […]
Tagged as: Mickey Mantle, Peter Golenbock
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July 12, 2010
Well, perhaps not everybody… With apologies to Sly and the Family Stone. In honor of the annual contest — held this year on July 13 in Anaheim — I run this little Q&A with Lew Freedman, author of The Day All the Stars Came Out: Major League Baseball’s First All-star Game, 1933, (McFarland). * * […]
Tagged as: All Star Game
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July 9, 2010
With apologies to Paul Simon. These came too late for Father’s Day, but I’ve noticed a lot of “father-son” themes lately. Currently reading Will Leitch’s Are We Winning: Fathers and Sons in the New Golden Age of Baseball, which mixes baseball and familial observations. Look for a podcast featuring an interview with Leitch late next […]
Tagged as: Arthur Rhodes, Doug Glanivlle, Jeff Gillenkirk, Will Leitch
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July 8, 2010
A bit overdue, but here’s my conversation with Doug Glanville, author of The Game From Where I Stand: A Ballplayer’s Inside View. During the course of the chat, Glanville shares his thoughts on the joys and difficulties of putting the book together, what he hopes to accomplish with it, and the possibility of more writing […]
Tagged as: Doug Glanville
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June 23, 2010
Part II, Again, sorry for the mistake in the publisher’s name. Again, the correct name is Sporting Chance Press. http://www.ronkaplansbaseballbookshelf.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Pod2BCameron062310.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Tagged as: Fred Merkle, Mike Cameron
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June 23, 2010
Had so much fun the first time, I thought I’d try to make it a regular feature. So for this week’s RKBB podcast, I spoke with Andy Wasif, author of Red Sox Fans are From Mars, Yankee Fans Are from Uranus, and Mike Cameron, who published Private Bonehead, Public Hero: The Real Legacy of Fred […]
Tagged as: Andy Wasif, Red Sox, Yankees
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June 13, 2010
Welcome to Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf, the podcast! Bear with us; this is a work in progress. We’ll get it right as time goes by. In the first installment, we chat with Bill Madden, veteran NY Daily News sportswriter and columnist, about his NY Times‘ bestseller, Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball. You can read […]
Tagged as: Bill Madden, George Steinbrenner, New York Yankees
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June 11, 2010
Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf: The Podcast! In the second part of the podcast, we chat with Jeff Gillenkirk, author of Home, Away, which follows a review of the book. http://www.ronkaplansbaseballbookshelf.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/GillenPodcast061210.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Tagged as: baseball fiction, Podcast
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May 23, 2010
Alex Rodriguez runs across the pitchers mound, p.o.-ing Oakland A’s pitcher Dallas Braden. A Phillies coach is accused of using binoculars to steal signs. You can’t buy this kind of publicity, but Jason Turbow, author of The Baseball Codes, will ceratinly take it, with thanks. It’s helped garner a few more talk show appearances, including […]
Tagged as: baseball rules, Jason Turbow
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May 23, 2010
The author of Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging ’70s spent a few groovy moments talking shop with the Bookshelf (and I don’t take shop from just anybody). Hear it here: Part one: [audio:http://www.ronkaplansbaseballbookshelf.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/DanEpstein1.mp3|titles=DanEpstein1] Part two: [audio:http://www.ronkaplansbaseballbookshelf.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/DanEpstein2.mp3|titles=DanEpstein2] http://www.ronkaplansbaseballbookshelf.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/DanEpstein1.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts […]
Tagged as: baseball in the 1970s, Dan Epstein
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May 9, 2010
The author of The Underground Baseball Encyclopedia spent a few moments with the Bookshelf to discuss some of his favorite pop-culturish baseball people, places, and things. Hear it here: [audio:http://www.ronkaplansbaseballbookshelf.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/SchnakenburgDone.mp3|titles=SchnakenburgDone] http://www.ronkaplansbaseballbookshelf.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/SchnakenburgDone.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Tagged as: baseball reference
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May 3, 2010 · 1 comment
Readers of The New York Times have noticed a shift in how the publication offers its baseball coverage these days. Gone (or rapidly going) are the regular columns of writers like Red Smith, George Anderson, George Vecsey, and Murray Chass. More often we have the succinct pieces and more numbers-oriented issues, such as Keeping Score, […]
Tagged as: Baseball-Reference.com, New York Times, Sean Forman, statistics
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April 30, 2010
This charming young lady came out with Lady in the Locker Room: Madcap Memoirs of the Early LA Dodgers last year. It’s one of the best self-published books I’ve come across in a long time. Part family photo album — and as the first person put on the team payroll after they relocated from Brooklyn […]
Tagged as: Los Angeles Dodgers
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April 18, 2010 · 1 comment
When I spoke with Danny Peary (that’s pronounced “PERRY,” as in Gaylord) recently about his new biography, Roger Maris: Baseball’s Reluctant Hero, I expressed surprise over the timing of his book, co-written with Tom Clavin. Then he made me feel ashamed I didn’t remember that 2010 is the 50th anniversary of Maris’ joining the Yankees. […]
Tagged as: Danny Peary, Roger Maris
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April 18, 2010
Maybe I’m just more sensitive to it, but there seem to be an awful lot of books this year catering to the boomers among is. There are plenty of biographies from higher-end publishers on all-time favorites such as Mays, Mantle, Aaron, Maris, Rizzuto, Kaline, and Musial, not to mention those that come from vanity presses […]
Tagged as: Baseball Cards, Dave Jamieson
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April 13, 2010
I don’t know how else to describe these twin brothers. They’re independent filmmakers, actors, and authors of Either You’re In or You’re In the Way: Two Brothers, Twelve Months, and One Filmmaking Hell-Ride to Keep a Promise to Their Father, which chronicles their efforts to make their cinematic tribute, Touching Home. The Millers have a […]
Tagged as: baseball movie, Logan and Noah Miller, Touching Home
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April 1, 2010 · 1 comment
Paraphrasing a great line from a TV show from long ago (I know forget which one, might have been M*A*S*H), i I were stranded on a dessert island and could only have one book, it would be the dictionary, because it has all the other books in it. That’s kind of the way I feel […]
Tagged as: essays, Sean Manning, Writing about baseball
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March 24, 2010
Former Yankee Ron Blomberg will be the featured speaker at Congregation Or Shalom in Orange, NY on Sunday, March 28 at 10 a.m. The event is open to the public, which is $5 in advance or $8 at the door. For more information, call 203-799-2341. I spoke with the Majors’ first designated yesterday to find […]
Tagged as: Ron Blomberg
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February 25, 2010
Hirsch, author of the critically-acclaimed (and not just by me) bio of Willie Mays, talks a good game. He was very generous with his time this week in discussing his work and process (as the extended length of this interview indicates), going so far as to read a portion from his chapter, “The Catch,” which […]
Tagged as: James Hirsch, Willie Mays
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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.
In Forbes Magazine re: Baseball Business Books
On Will Carroll’s “Under the Knife” substack
Most recent books read updated 12/21/24:
Charlie Hustle: The Rise and Fall of Pete Rose, and the Last Glory Days of Baseball, by Keith O’Brien
Grade: A. The most in-depth bio to date, focusing on Rose's gambling addiction.
Sometimes You See It Coming, by Kevin Baker
Grade: B. I first read this one when it originally came out some 30 years ago. I must say I don't remember it being so raunchy in spots. Draws on lots of real-life events and characters that real fans will recognize.
The Last of His Kind: Clayton Kershaw and the Burden of Greatness, by Andy McCullough
Grade: A. I usually don't like titles with superlatives, but in this case the author might be right, although there are probably a couple of Kershaw's contemporaries (Verlander and Scherzer) who fit that description.
The Yankee Way: The Untold Inside Story of the Brian Cashman Era, by Andy Martino
Grade: B+. Even this non-Yankee fan found the deep background with its Moneyball-like machinations interesting
The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City, by Kevin Baker
Grade: A. Well-researched, well-written. What else could you ask for? Baker has a lot of street cred writing about New York as well, both in fiction and non-fiction.
The Body Scout, by Lincoln Michel
Grade: C. Perhaps the ultimate performance enhancers -- interchangeable body parts -- help major leaguers of the future. But, as with all of these things, there's a price to pay.
Cardboard Gods: An All-American Tale Told Through Baseball Cards, by Josh Wilker
Grade: A. Re-read in preparation for a Bookshelf Conversation with the author. Had a deeper meaning than when I first read it more than a decade ago.
The Bookshelf Conversation
Discussions about all things baseball with authors, journalists, filmmakers, musicians, artists, et al
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Mike Shannon on "Diamond Classics II" ( video)
Todd Radom, Ellen Linder, and Brian Kong ( video)
Rick Cerrone (Baseball Digest, video)
Kevin Baker (Sometimes You See It Coming, video)
Curtis Pride and Doug Ward (video)
Dan Epstein on James Earl Jones (video)
Jim Gilmore and Tracy Holcomb (video)
"The Lost Tapes": Conversations prior to 2011 (audio)
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
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* Bookshelf author interview: Josh Wilker
March 26, 2010
Josh Wilker launched his blog, CardboardGods (Motto: “Voice of the mathematically eliminated”) as a link to a simpler time, when all a boy needed to be happy was a nickle, a dime, or at most a quarter, to buy a pack of baseball cards. For a ten-year-old, these guys were, in fact, gods. All you […]
Tagged as: Baseball Cards, Cardboard Gods, Josh Wilker
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