Author profile/interview by Ron Kaplan

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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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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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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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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<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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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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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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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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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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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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<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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<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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  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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Mets favorite remembers the victories, and tensions, of a turbulent era by Ron Kaplan (This article appeared in the New Jersey Jewish News, Nov. 18, 2004) Art Shamsky may not have been a Hall of Famer like Sandy Koufax, but for Jewish fans of the New York Mets during their “amazin’” World Championship season in […]

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<h3 class=”entry-header”><a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=160,height=241,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/hollanderheadshot_1.jpg”><img title=”Hollanderheadshot_1″ height=”150″ alt=”Hollanderheadshot_1″ src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/hollanderheadshot_1.jpg” width=”100″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 5px 5px 0px” /></a> </h3> <div class=”entry-content”><div class=”entry-body”><p></p> <div style=”CLEAR: both”></div><strong>Rachmones for the underdog:<br />NJ author highlights athletes with scars, not stars, in new book</strong><br /><br />Despite the title of his new book, <em>52 Weeks: Interviews with […]

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<p>I met <a href=”http://www.bookreporter.com/authors/au-oliphant-thomas.asp”><span style=”color: #3f848a;”>Tom Oliphant </span></a>during at a discussion of his book, <em>Praying for Gil <a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=170,height=144,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/oliphant_1.jpg”><img title=”Oliphant_1″ height=”84″ alt=”Oliphant_1″ src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/oliphant_1.jpg” width=”100″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px” /></a> <a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=170,height=144,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/oliphant.jpg”></a><a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=358,height=475,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/mr_met.jpg”></a>Hodges</em>, held at the Yogi […]

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