Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Kind of weird: it’s almost June and still no baseball book reviews in The New York Times? I know space is precious on those pages, but still. There are any number of worthy candidates. Get on it, Times. In the meantime: From the Rockford, Ill., Rock River Times, this piece on Steven K. Wagner’s Perfect: The […]
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Sometimes things just work out in surprising fashion. Last week I received an e-mail from Fred Harris to let me know he was re-releasing one of my favorite books, The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading And Bubblegum Book, co-written with Brendan Boyd, as an e-book (though previous versions are still available on-line). TGABCFTABB is […]
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NEW STUFF: 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… […]
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Just finished thumbing through A History of Baseball in 100 Objects, the latest baseball release by Josh Leventhal, author of several other well-produced baseball titles. The objects included herein represent the game since before its “formal” recognized inception in the mid 1800s (and please don’t write about the exact DOB of the game). But the […]
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Since I posted the first of these last Thursday, which is known on social media as a time of reflection, I thought to make it a regular thing under this rubric. As a reminder, I highly recommend Pocket as a way to hold onto links you come that you want to keep. Unlike bookmarks, Pocket […]
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The baseball card scion died yesterday at the age of 91. If you were a red-blooded American boy, you probably collected some form of “sports cards” as a kid. Most likely, they were the offspring of Berger, who created Topps back in the early 1950s. Although trading cards have been around for more than 100 […]
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Do cameras still use hot-shoe flash attachments? Anyway, this was going around Facebook yesterday so I thought I’d pass it along. For only $3,995, you can be the first kid on the block to own this (the link brings you to the page where each of the 134 cards are identified): First edition, first and […]
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Sports Collectors Digest ran a nice profile on the “father of the modern baseball card,” who recently turned 91. A few years ago, Topps, seeking to nudge their way into relevance again, produced a number of videos about their work. Here’s one on Berger: Speaking of collectibles, the Miami Marlins have a Bobblehead Museum at […]
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I am signed up for a bunch of daily Google alerts which inform me about various sports topics, including baseball stuff and Jewish-related items for my other blog. Sometimes I even read them. After the death last week of baseball lifer Don Zimmer, I received a GA for a story appearing on the very serious-yet-entertaining […]
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From the Associated Press: Advanced Stats Find Way Onto Baseball Cards The advanced-stats movement is making headway in another area: baseball cards. Topps added WAR (wins above replacement) to its cards last year in a sign that the oft-debated metric is becoming more accepted by the mainstream. As a company that’s been making baseball cards […]
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(As opposed to this; you can stop watching at about the one minute mark.) What else can you say about the new set of Jewish Major Leaguers cards? The updated edition, the first since the 2010 “Deck of the Decade,” features all-new photography for the players who appeared during the 2010-13 seasons (including a clean-shaven […]
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Sure, we all know how rare the Honus Wagner and Mickey Mantle rookie cards are. And how valuable if they’re in pristine condition. How many times have we denied ourselves the pleasure of just handling the cardboard, worried about bending the corners or leaving finger prints? Back in the seventh grade, I did a project […]
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When I was a kid, I looked forward with great anticipation to the release of the new set of Topps baseball cards. Now… From JewishMajorLeaguers.org: Order Now to assure delivery in time for Passover and Opening Day. We thought we were done in 2010, but you’ve asked us to keep this tradition going! This 50-card […]
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Brought to you by the folks at Mental Floss, the magazine that gave me my first national exposure and cover story (right). Have these World Series matchups ever happened? (Not to brag but I aced it.) The Baseball Card Brand Quiz (a lot tougher; ugh, I only scored 64%, which was slightly higher than the […]
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The Cardboard Connection ran this story about Teddy Kremer, a 30-year-old with Down syndrome, whose love for the Cincinnati Reds is apparently as big as his heart. Kremer had the opportunity to serve as honorary bat boy for the Reds, was asked to return, and had a hand in this special moment for Todd Frazier […]
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Josh Levin of Slate’s Hang Up and Listen podcast posted this educational piece on “The Worst Baseball Card of All Time.” Spoiler alert: It’s Bob Hamlin in the 1996 Pinnacle Foil set (card no. 289). Levin’s essay makes some very good arguments and offers a mini-history lesson on the industry, full of links to examples […]
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Actually, I found this on the top shelf of the linen closest but the principle is the same. This comes from the era when Trivial Pursuit was a big hit: Typical card: (Note the typo in the last question. See? It’s not just me.) Reminds me of a fold-out I recently tossed out (believe it […]
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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
The things we keep: The sad truth
March 9, 2015
Bob, a distant relative of my wife, passed away recently. He lived in Hoboken with his wife, who died several years ago. I didn’t know him well. He was a very quiet fellow who kept to himself during the biennial family reunions. I can’t even recall his last name on my own. It turns out […]
Tagged as: Baseball Cards, collecting, Memorabilia
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