Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Graig Kreindler got a nice write-up in Hyland Magazine which was, according to the publisher, “created strictly for subscription on the iPad,” (booo). If you have an iPad, God bless. If not, and you’re on Facebook, you can read the individual panels here.
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Enjoyed reading a few … well, what to call them? They’re not exactly graphic novels since they deal with real-life figures.. Anyway… The first was 21: The Story of Roberto Clemente, which is described as a graphic novel on the dust cover. Written/drawn by Wilfred Santiago and published by Fantographic Books last year, this is […]
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Speaking of Damn Yankees… The composer/lyricist responsible for such memorable songs as and “Heart” and “Whatever Lola Wants (Lola Gets)” from Damn Yankees died June 21 at the age of 90. Damn Yankees was based on the novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, by Douglass Wallop. Adler also worked on words and music […]
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The iconic artist passed away yesterday at the age of 91. I first “discovered” Neiman when I was pre-teen from This Great Game, a baseball coffee-table book which included several of his illustrations. He also did the artwork for a 2002 edition of Casey at The Bat. Neiman portrayed most of the star players over […]
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Artist Andy Jurinko loved baseball. He was especially enamored of players from what he considered a “Golden Era.” He published Heart Of The Game: An Illustrated Celebration Of The American League, 1946-1960 and 2004 and his new title, Golden Boys: Baseball Portraits, 1946-1960 was published posthumously. Jurinko died of pancreatic cancer in February 2011 at […]
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Unveiling the bronze statue of baseball Hall of Famer and humanitarian Roberto Clemente in Essex County Branch Brook Park on Sunday, June 3rd were (from left) Clemente’s son Louis, Clemente’s widow Vera, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. and NJ State Senator and Essex County Deputy Chief of Staff Teresa […]
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Sheesh, what’s going to be left? The New York Times sports media writer Richard Sandomir wrote this story about sports cartoonists joining the endangered species list last week. In my attic I have pages torn from the NY Daily News from 1969, when Bruce Stark drew a series of Mets, including Gil Hodges, Tom Seaver, […]
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In this case, the “K” stands for Koufax. Artist Loren Kantor is offering woodcuts of the Hall of Famer. A 5″ x 6″, hand-pulled block print on acid-free archival paper will cost you a C-note.
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The long-time New Yorker cartoonist died on March 22 at the age of 100. Here’s his obit from The New York Times by Bruce Weber. The joke in the above cartoon is a bit hard to see; one ump has a picture of Roger Maris in his locker, while the other has one of […]
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I have a soft spot for ballplayers who remain on one team for their entire career. Especially in the post reserve clause era, when athletes often look for the biggest paycheck, if not the best fit. Loyalty is a hard thing to come by these days. How many Cardinals fans expected Albert Pujols would re-sign […]
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The 2012 SABR Jerry Malloy Negro League Art Competition is looking for submissions. Winners receive a cash award, publication in the journal Black Ball and exhibition at the Baseball Heritage Museum in Cleveland. There are three categories: professional, amateur, and youth (under 16). The deadline for submission is May 7. For more information and to […]
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The famed illustrator had much more important issues than baseball to draw about. From the NY Times obituary by Douglas Martin: With sketch pads in hand, Mr. McMahon covered momentous events in the civil rights struggle, spacecraft launchings, national political conventions and the Vatican, turning out line drawings for major magazines and newspapers. Many were […]
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Zack Hample, baseball author and collector extraordinaire, discovered this fun find: an expense sheet for the NY Mets in 1962. The per diem for most of the team seemed to have been $17.15. Today that would be, like, a million dollars.
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Back in the day (i.e., when I was a kid), taking pictures was a pretty big deal. Cameras used real film (kids, ask your parents), either in roles for SLR cameras that a) cost money, and b) had to be developed, which cost more money. If you had an “instamatic” camera, then you had to […]
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From the George Krevsky Gallery: Opening day of baseball season millions join together to root for their home team, to watch, to listen and to experience. Partake in this great American pastime at The George Krevsky Gallery’s Art of Baseball: 15th Annual Exhibition featuring 76 drawings, paintings, and sculptures by 46 artists from across the […]
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I don’t know if the young collectors nowadays recite this mantra as they go through their friends cards, but back in the day… Gary Cieradkowski, the artist behind the Infinite Baseball Card Set, is having a finite sale of his work. As I’ve written in the past, these are exquisite and imaginative little works of […]
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Songs and Images from the Early Years of America’s Favorite Pastime, by Jerry Silverman. Alfred Publishing Company, 2007. Fans of both old-tyme baseball and music will enjoy this one. Part-music book, part-collectible (for the reproduction of the sheet music covers), part-historical analysis, The Baseball Songbook is a collection of more than 40 tunes (mostly heretofore […]
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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
