Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Congrats to Larry Gerlach, Leslie Heaphy, and Sarah Langs, this year’s recipients of the Henry Chadwick Award given by the Society for American Baseball Research, “established to honor the game’s great researchers — historians, statisticians, annalists, and archivists — for their invaluable contributions to making baseball the game that links America’s present with its past.” […]
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Since this is award season (Grammys, Ocars, etc.), I thought it would be a good time to mention some recent baseball book recipients. Kostya Kennedy received Spitball Magazine‘s CASEY Award for True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson. From the Spitball website: “Kennedy … not only becomes the first three-time winner of the CASEY, but […]
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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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Our old friend, Curt Smith, weighs in on the top contenders for the 2023 Frick Award, bestowed by the Baseball Hall of Fame to a broadcaster for “major contributions to baseball,” in Sports Business Journal. Of course, I’m biased and am hoping that the Mets’ Gary Cohen gets the honor, but I’m sure the other […]
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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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James E. Brunson III, Jane Leavy, and Daniel Okrent have been named recipients of the Society for American Baseball Research’s esteemed Henry Chadwick Award, “established to honor the game’s great researchers … for their invaluable contributions to making baseball the game that links America’s present with its past.” Leavy is the author of biographies about […]
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Amid all the announcements of the usual post-season awards — and kudos to all those winners — we should not forget that there are some other heavy hitters out there who deserve to be recognized. Spitball Magazine just announced the finalists for the estimable Casey Award, given for the best baseball book of the year. […]
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Note: 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 writing one). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes. In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast one […]
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Note: 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 writing one). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes. In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast one […]
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Award season continues! From the organization’s press release: SABR is pleased to announce the 2019 recipients of the Henry Chadwick Award, established to honor the game’s great researchers — historians, statisticians, annalists, and archivists — for their invaluable contributions to making baseball the game that links America’s present with its past. The 2019 recipients of […]
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From the Society for American Baseball Research: The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created, written by Jane Leavy and published by HarperCollins, is the winner of the 2019 Dr. Harold and Dorothy Seymour Medal, which honors the best book of baseball history or biography published during the preceding calendar year. Leavy will receive […]
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From the Society for American Baseball Research: Each year, SABR’s Deadball Era Committee presents the Larry Ritter Book Award to recognize the best new baseball book primarily set in the Deadball Era that was published during the previous calendar year. The Ritter Award is presented during the Deadball Committee’s meeting at the annual SABR convention. […]
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Headnote: I’ve decided to bow to the times and include separate lists for e-books and audio books. Be aware that while many titles also appear in print versions, pretty much anyone can produce an e-book these days, so I’m not going to comment at all about the quality. As far as the audio goes, I’m […]
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The Baseball Writers Association of America has selected Jayson Stark the winner of the 2019 J.G. Taylor Spink Award. The award honors “a baseball writer (or writers) “‘or meritorious contributions to baseball writing,’” according to the Baseball Hall of Fame website. Stark, who now writes for The Athletic after a long career with ESPN.com, will […]
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Mike Shannon, editor of Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine, recently sent along a notice about the finalists for the prestigious 2017 CASEY Award, celebrating its 35 year in recogniing some of the best books on the game. Where applicable, I have included a link to either my review of the book or a “Bookshelf Conversation” […]
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(Posted early Saturday, but the time references refer to Friday.) The second full day began with “A Celebration of 70 Years: Jackie Robinson’s Journey,” with panelists Lee Lowenfish, author of Branch Rickey: The Ferocious Gentleman among other baseball titles; author and former NY Times columnist William C. Rhoden; and Della Britton Baeza, CEO of the […]
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Thanks to social media and email, there are probably people you’ve known for years but have never actually met. For me, Mike Shannon is one of those people. I would venture to say I’ve been corresponding with Shannon for 20 or so years but I only recently had a chance to actually hear his voice for our […]
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Spitball — “The Literary baseball Magazine” — recently announced the slate of finalists for the 2016 CASEY Award: The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports by Jeff Passan The Baseball Whisperer: A Small-Town Coach Who Shaped Big League Dreams by Michael Tackett Bucky F*cking Dent (novel) by David Duchovny Game […]
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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 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
