Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
NOTE: I have been posting these things long enough now that a few have commented that the introductory section isn’t necessary anymore. But I’m leaving it in because, to paraphrase Joe DiMaggio when asked why he played so hard all the time, there may be people who’ve never read the best-seller entries before. So on […]
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In yesterday’s post about “Baseball and books — What’s the connection?”, a reader asked about the painting I used as a graphic element. Here’s what I found out thanks to the good people at lds.org, the website for the Latter Day Saints. Their response to my on-line query: “Young Joseph Fielding Smith Studying the Book […]
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Dan Epstein’s Star and Strikes from the Dallas Morning News and the Tulsa World. Bill Littlefield, host of WBUR’s Only a Game, includes Alan Klein’s Dominican Baseball in this brief trio of sports reviews for the Boston Globe. The Baptist Press offers this one on Double Play, by Ben and Julianna Zobrist.
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This it the time of year when the baseball media offer their considered opinions on their favorite prospects. Sometimes they’re spot on, other times, not so much. So I thought, why not apply this to the upcoming “rookie crop” of baseball books? That is, titles that are making their debuts in 2014 — no reprints/reissues […]
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It took me a long time to get through Baseball as a Road to God: Seeing Beyond the Game. Not because it was boring, heaven forbid, but because it made me stop and think so much. Some might think too much time and emotion are spent dissecting sports — to much romanticism, too much philosophy, […]
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According to the Orlando Sentinel, “Mark Gilbert, a prominent Democratic Party fundraiser from Boca Raton, may be on his way to New Zealand and Samoa” as U.S. ambassador. If Gilbert’s name seems at all familiar, you’re an older baseball uber-fan: Gilbert appeared in seven games for the Chicago White Sox in 1985, batting .273 in […]
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The New York Times runs this review of Mike Piazza’s Long Shot. Given that the book was released almost two months ago and they’re just reviewing it now, I won’t give up the hopes that the Times will do something with 501. The review is more of a “what the book’s about” piece than whether […]
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Hit the mother lode on Kirkus today in a good-news/bad-news scenario. On the plus side, I found several reviews of forthcoming topics for your interest and information. On the down side, 501 isn’t among them. 🙠Hank Greenberg: The Hero of Heroes, by John Rosengrean (buy it here). Baseball as a Road to God: Seeing […]
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Dec. 22 marked the 70 anniversary of an advertisement than ran in The New York Times and several other newspapers calling on men and women of German ancestry to join in a campaign denouncing the Nazi regime. The advertisement, which was sponsored by the World Jewish Congress, began At this season in which we celebrate […]
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♦ I’m including this piece just because I find it amusing. I hope the Brits don’t get all their baseball info like this. ♦ Who says fiction about the national pastime has to be confined to literature? Here’s a case of fictitious baseball merchandise. ♦ Dan Epstein, author of Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A […]
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Ok, hurication is over. Time to get back to some semblance of normalcy. I hope y’all are okay out there. We came out unscathed save for a couple of days without power; presently we have no cable/Internet service, but no complaints given what so many others are going through. Before the power went out we […]
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I spent the past weekend in baseball heaven: a program at the Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center in Falls Village, CT. Suffice it to say, a good time was had by all the menschen who participated, both the speakers (if I may be so bold as to speak on their behalf) and the guests. Here’s […]
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This spring, Triumph released memoirs/bios about Oil Can Boyd and Willie Mays Aikens. All props to these guys for being members of the select fraternity of those who made it to the Majors. But they really “deserve” books about them? Boyd was 78-77 over a 10-year career while Aikens played eight seasons (done by 31) […]
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My daughter attends NYU, which is where I eventually learned of this course taught by the school’s president, John Sexton, during a Parent’s Weekend last fall. “Baseball as a Road to God” is this subject of a front page story in today’s New York Times. Hoping to sit in on one of the sessions, I […]
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Bookshelf friend Tom Hoffarth (he of the annual “30 baseball books in 30 days” feature for the Los Angeles Daily News) posted this amusing item culled from David Javerbaum’s new book, The Last Testament: A Memoir. In short, don’t ask God to help your team; although he’s a sports fan, that’s below his pay grade. […]
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Dave Dravecky, who bravely fought a battle against cancer that eventually ended his playing career, turns 55 today. He has written several books, both about his life on the field and his string faith, including Comeback and the even sadder When You Can’t Come Back. Of course, you would never hear him complain because it’s […]
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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.
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
