Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
I guess I’m going into my second (or is it third? Fourth?) childhood. Been visiting eBay looking for various baseball cards sets, primarily Topps Heritage which recreates old set designs with contemporary players such as this one which hearkens back to the 1972 series. So what a coincidence to come across this article — “Best Books […]
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♦ Adding to the previous B&P item about gathering Hall of Fame induction speeches: you would expect writers to be more comfortable with the process than the players. Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell was the 2025 winner of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s Career Excellence Award. Here is his acceptance speech. Side note: According […]
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A couple of weeks ago I visited a local shop that purportedly sold comics and baseball cards. Alas, I learned that was not the case. The owner told me there was no real business for cards over the past several years. I would say that that’s a shame but the reality is there have been […]
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Since you can out baseball cards on your bookshelf… SABR’s Baseball Cards Research Committee has bestowed its highest honor — the Jefferson Burdick Award — to legendary artist Dick Perez. From the Committee’s announcement: While Dick is best known to many collectors for his fifteen-year run (1982-96) creating Donruss Diamond Kings, these cards only scratch […]
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Time was baseball cards were worth something besides sentimental value. I nought my wife’s engagement wring with the money I received selling a set on 1967 Topps. That ship has sailed. As I mentioned recently, I recently rediscovered a foot locker full of various card sets, as well as a couple of smaller boxes in […]
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Since it was fairly moderate yesterday I decided to tool around the attic in yet another attempt to purge. That’s where I have the bulk of my library as well as other baseball-related items, including a foot locker of baseball cards. Problem with trying to clean up is that you get caught up in a […]
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See here for a headnote and explanation. #47: Ryan Mountcastle Voted most likely to be a character in Game of Thrones. #48: Jacob DeGrom I think most fans want a home-grown star to remain with their team for the duration of their career. And especially nowadays, with salaries being so high, why would anyone really […]
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See here for a headnote and explanation. #42: Franchy Cordero As opposed to Frenchy Bordagaray? #43: NL Average Leaders Average leaders? Sounds like an oxymoron. I want above average leaders. That’s why they’re “leaders.” BITD, all the leader cards came consecutively numbered: average, home runs, and RBI for batters; wins, strikeouts, and ERA for pitchers. […]
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See here for a headnote and explanation. #37: Josh Smith A second-round draft pick for the Yankees in 2019, Smith was traded to the Rangers in 2021 and made his debut with them last year, so another first-carder. #38: Jorge Mateo Led the American League in stolen bases in his first full season last year. […]
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See here for a headnote and explanation. Back to earth, so to speak and with all due respect. #32: Jordan Montgomery Has been around since breaking in with the Yankees in 2017, joining the Cardinals in a trade late last year. #33: Kyle Farmer “Kyle batted .394 across a 29-game stretch from mid-May to mid-June […]
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See here for a headnote and explanation. #27: Mike Trout Another player whose stature would have earned him a “zero” on his card in another generation. There’s a fascinating site by SportTrac that keeps tabs on, among other things, time spent on the Injury List (you may have heard by now that Shohei Ohtani (#17) […]
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See here for a headnote and explanation. Fanatics — which bought out Topps — recently posted an offering for a complete factory sealed box set for 2023. Here are the details: Base Cards (660 Subjects) – Base cards from Topps Baseball Series 1 & Series 2: 660 base cards, 5 rookie cards, 5 base card […]
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See here for a headnote and explanation. The mother lode. When we used to collect cards by the pack, to borrow from Forrest Gump, it was always an adventure. Life was like a box of chocolates; you never know what you were going to get. You might get a Mickey Mantle, but he would be […]
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See here for a headnote and explanation. A few years ago, I was called for jury duty. I don’t know how it works where you are, but in my little corner of New Jersey, there’s a lot of sitting around waiting. I decided to put my time to good use by studying a few of […]
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See here for a headnote an explanation. I don’t know what I was thinking. Doing one card a day for more than 600 cards will take almost a couple of years. Ain’t nobody got time for that. So by doing five a day, I can be done by the end of the year. So without […]
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Because you can keep cards on your bookshelf. Headnote: I don’t know why I keep doing it. Force of habit I guess. As I pointed out in an entry about Mets cards, The way it worked back then, Topps would release seven series of about 132 cards each beginning in March or April. Once the […]
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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
Five Cards Whenever #52-56: Matthew Liberatore, Dylan Cease, Marcus Stroman, Christian Javier, Jermaine Palacios
August 31, 2023
See here for a headnote and explanation. #52: Matthew Liberatore I got a real education on baseball card lingo from Toppsrippsed.com, most importantly a glossary of so many terms that didn’t exist when I was a mere lad. Folks, this is required reading. As for Liberatore, he gets an “RC” for his rookie card, which […]
Tagged as: Christian Javier, Dylan Cease, Jermaine Palacios, Marcus Stroman, Matthew Liberatore, Topps
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