Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
January 23, 2008
Veteran sportswriter Tim Kurkjian joined ESPN in 1998 as both a reporter for Baseball Tonight and a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. His extensive background covering baseball included a stint at Sports Illustrated as a senior writer from 1989-97. Like many of his sports brethren, he took a large chunk of his accumulated anecdotes […]
Tagged as: baseball author, Tim Kurkjian
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January 22, 2008
Patrick Smith’s 2007 memoir, Extra Innings takes a honest and amusing look at life on the senior circuit. No, not the National League, but the amateur baseball leagues that fill the towns across the country. Smith, a resident of Baltimore, took some time to answer a few questions about the nuts-and-bolts of working with McFarland […]
Tagged as: Extra Innings, interview, McFarland, Patrick Smith
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January 16, 2008
I had an opportunity to pose a few questions about Harvard Boys with the father and son writing team of Rick and John Wolff, about life in the minors, parental advice, and the process of putting the book together. Their responses, via e-mail. : Bookshelf: John, knowing what your dad went through, the difficulties he […]
Tagged as: Harvard Boys, John Wolf, minor leagues, Rick Wolf
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November 16, 2007
Regardless of the success a professional sports team achieves, they always come up short when compared to the standard set by the 1927 New York Yankees, who won 110 of 154 games and swept the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series. Dartmouth University professor Harvey Frommer takes a fresh look at the model in Five […]
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October 29, 2007
Dan Gordon and Mickey Bradley would love it if instead of candy, you handed out copies of their new book Haunted Baseball: Ghosts, Curses, Legends, and Eerie Events. Gordon said in an e-mail interview that timing is everything. The publishers — The Lyons Press — released the book a few weeks ago, to take advantage […]
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October 19, 2007
Beyond the Sports Page The 2007 season ended not with a bang, but with a whimper as the New York Mets frittered away a seven-game National League Eastern Division lead with 17 games to play. Years from now, how will fans recall the events of this major disappointment? If they are as thoughtful as author […]
Tagged as: Baseball News, Books, Mets, Richard Grossinger
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October 3, 2007
Matt Murphy, the lucky fan who corralled Barry Bonds’ record-breaking 756th home run on Aug. 7, should be grateful that Zack Hample wasn’t at the game. Hample, 30, is an expert in the art of procuring balls, whether snagging them himself with a specially-made glove in batting practice or simply asking for them. As of […]
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October 2, 2007
Sports and politics: strange bedfellows As the son of Brooklyn Dodgers fans, sportswriter Dave Zirin developed an appreciation for the power a single act can have on not only sports, but the larger community as well. “I grew up in a house that revered Sandy Koufax, and I heard the story of him ducking out […]
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June 19, 2007
Dodger photographer highlighted game off the fields Barney Stein was an elfin man who loved his work, and it shows in the faces of his subjects, the Brooklyn Dodgers, for whom he served as official shutterbug for 20 years. In an effort to preserve his legacy, Stein’s daughter, Bonnie Crosby, collaborated with Dennis D’Agostino to […]
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May 25, 2007
For more than a quarter-century, Mel Allen owned the most recognizable voice in America. Filmgoers listened to his MovieTone newsreel narrations while a national radio audience was soothed by his smooth introductions to numerous programs. But most of all, baseball fans followed his calls of the New York Yankees, his signature “How about that!” signifying […]
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April 24, 2007
The literary world lost one of its greats with the untimely death of David Halberstam. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author is one of those writers whom I always admired for his ability to transcend subjects, whether writing about politics (The Best and The Brightest), American history/pop culture (The Fifties, my favorite of all his books), or […]
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April 15, 2007
<p><strong>The Jews and Jackie Robinson</strong></p> <p></p> <p>At a time when unenlightened baseball fans and players hurled epithets and <a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=400,height=602,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0’); return false” href=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/joneigspt.jpg”><img title=”Joneigspt” height=”225″ alt=”Joneigspt” src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/joneigspt.jpg” width=”150″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px” /></a> brickbats to protest an African American playing in the major leagues, the Jewish community embraced Jackie […]
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April 13, 2007
There have been a handful of books about Jews and baseball over the years. Mostly anecdotal in nature, they have served to fuel the conception that the Jewish involvement in professional sports is practically negligible. Burton and Benita Boxerman aim to disprove that notion in their scholarly treatment, Jews and Baseball Volume 1: Entering the […]
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February 6, 2007
Joshua Prager is author of The Echoing Green, the authoritative book on what might be the best-kept secret in sports cheating: Bobby Thomson’s homer in the 1951 playoffs against the Brooklyn Dodgers. Prager, who broke the story in a 2001 article in the Wall Street Journal, spent five years researching, interviewing, and writing the book, […]
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January 31, 2007
What are the odds? In an amazing example of great minds thinking alike, three former writers for the Forward —Jonathan Mahler, Seth Mnookin, and Joshua Prager — have published critically acclaimed books on baseball, each focusing on a different historical event. The TV miniseries Jonathan Mahler, author of Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning […]
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November 29, 2006
The story of baseball’s ‘Designated Hebrew’ proved a tough pitch for NJ sportswriters He wasn’t Hank Greenberg. He wasn’t Sandy Koufax. Heck, he wasn’t even ShawnGreen, a contemporary Jewish favorite. What Ron Blomberg was was the first designated hitter, an invention that made its major league debut on April 6, 1972. But Blomberg claims he’s […]
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November 6, 2006
This article originally appeared in New Jersey Jewish News, March 30, 2006 Baseball’s opening day is just about here. And not just for the professionals. According to the Little League Baseball and Softball 2006 Media Guide, more than 2.6 million kids participated in 7,408 baseball or softball leagues last year. Dunow, a New York literary […]
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October 27, 2006
<p><a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=450,height=700,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0’); return false” href=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/heroesidolsspt.jpg”><span style=”color: #000000;”><img title=”Heroesidolsspt” height=”233″ alt=”Heroesidolsspt” src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/heroesidolsspt.jpg” width=”150″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px” /></span></a><span style=”color: #000000;”> </span><span style=”color: #000000;”><strong>The mighty have fallen:<br />Examining hero worship in the steroids era</strong> </span></p> <p><span style=”color: #000000;”>A version of this article originally appeared in <em>New Jersey Jewish News</em>, May 18, […]
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October 25, 2006
<p><strong>Still waiting for that miracle: Chicago rabbi combines Kabala and Cubs in novel </strong></p> <p>For the 98th straight year, the Chicago Cubs missed out on a chance to win a world championship. The team finished last in the National League Central Division, their manager was fired, and the front office is once again embarking on […]
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October 23, 2006
Steve Goldman was only four years old when Casey Stengel, manager of the New York Yankees juggernaut for more than a decade, died in 1975. So where does the fascination come from that Goldman would devote 10 years to write the latest biography of the cagey Casey? For Yankee fans of a certain age, […]
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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
Subscribe to the "Bookshelf Conversations" podcast on iTunes and please leave a rating and/or review. Gracias!
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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