Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Today marks the “official” beginning of American involvement in World War II, spurred by the attack on Pearl Harbor. There are several excellent books that note the toll the War took on the national pastime, as well as the role baseball had in keeping up the country’s morale. Among them: Spartan Seasons: How Baseball Survived […]
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Anyone who’s read my blogs for awhile knows I’m all about the veterans. So it was especially please to have them honored before last night’s World Series game. The triple-amputee Marine acquitted himself most nobly in throwing out the first pitch (about the 7:30 mark).
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If this doesn’t bring a lump to your throat, then you have no soul. Either scripts and active content are not permitted to run or Adobe Flash Player version10.0.0 or greater is not installed.
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♦ From the Tulsa World, this on on Robert Fitts’ Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, and Assassination during the 1934 Tour of Japan. Upshot: “It is very well-researched and a balanced account, but it occasionally threatens to sag under the weight of such details. Readers need not be fans of baseball to appreciate the sport […]
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The author of the classic Babe: The Legend Comes to Life, as well as other highly praised baseball titles (Baseball in ’41: A Celebration of the “Best Baseball Season Ever” and Stengel: His Life and Times) turned 90 on Saturday. Baseball: Past and Present posted this interview with Creamer earlier this year.
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On this Memorial Day, I just wanted to offer a totally inadequate not of appreciation to all the men and women who sacrificed for this country. In addition to Gary Bedingfield’s thorough Baseball’s Dead of World War II: A Roster of Professional Players Who Died in Service, other books on baseball players and wartime include: […]
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Those who share my birthday include: The late Mike Coolbaugh, whose death from a line drive in a minor league game was achingly chronicled by S.L. Price in Heart of the Game: Life, Death, and Mercy in Minor League America. Lou Brissie, whose amazing comeback from devastating injuries suffered during World War II was the […]
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I ran this Q&A with Gary Bedingfield, author and host Baseball in Wartime, last November in honor of Veteran’s Day. Thought I’d do post again to commemorate Memorial Day. In addition, I received a sweet little video recently which also has some WW II content. Around the League, 1939-1946 was filmed and later narrated by […]
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to Bobby Murcer, who would have been 64 today. He published Yankee for Life: My 40-Year Journey in Pinstripes, written with Glen Waggoner, shortly before his death. Also born this date, in 1921, “Prince” Hal Newhouser, subject of A Tiger in His Time: Hal Newhouser and the Burden of Wartime Ball, written by David M. […]
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The Mattoon, IL Journal Gazette/Times-Courier ran this review of Ira Berkow’s bio of Lou Brissie, who came back from devastating war injuries to pitch effectively in the Major Leagues.
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Actually, most are not exactly new, but re-released in paper back editions. But I guess they’re all new if you haven’t read them yet (this sounds like one of those “if a tree falls in the woods…” bits). The only one that might qualify is A Game of Inches: The Stories Behind the Innovations That […]
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A Baseball Prodigy, a World at War, and a Field of Broken Dreams, by Gary W. Moore I wanted to wait a bit after Veteran’s Day because I didn’t want this to appear as a knock against the vets. I have nothing but respect for them, their service and sacrifice. Gary Moore writes this respectful, affectionate […]
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Two Baseball Legends, Two Boxing Champs, and the Unstoppable Thoroughbred Who Made History in the Shadow of War, by Mike Vacarro (Doubleday, 2006) (Note: This review originally appeared in my previous blog on baseball and books a few years back.) While he does cover other sports in his newest offering, Mike Vaccaro, New York Post […]
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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
