Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Dec. 31,2010. Title Rank General The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy 1 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis, by 2 Baseball Forecaster 2011, by Ron Shandler 3 Baseball Prospectus 2011 4 Beyond […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
(and other media, of course.) With the close of 2010, I thought I take a few moments to review the highlights of the past 12 months as pertains to our favorite topic. It’s been a banner year for baseball biographies. We’ve enjoyed munch-anticipated titles from major publishers on Hall of Famers such as Hank Aaron, […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Recently saw the 1965 film Ship of Fools (highly recommended) which tells the tales of a bunch of misfits on a German cruise ship pre-WWII. Great cast: Vivian Leigh, Simone Signoret, Jose Ferrer, Oskar Werner, George Segal, Elizabeth Ashley, and more. Naturally my ears pricked up when the following conversation between Tenny, a washed-up American […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Noon on Friday, Sept. 27. Title Rank General Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis 1 Ball Four, by Jim Bouton 2 The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime by Jason Turbow and Michael […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will host the Baseball Film Festival in Cooperstown, Oct. 1-3. As part of the three-day event, Billy Crystal, who directed and executive produced the classic film 61*, will be on hand as the Hall of Fame celebrates his 2001 production that told the story of the 1961 […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Flipping through the dial last night when I cam across Ronald Reagan starring as Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander in The Winning Team, a 1952 bio-pic. Alexander played from 1911-1930 and pitched in the 1915, ’26, and ’28 World Series, the last two as an elder member of the St. Louis Cardinals. He’s […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will recognize the twin traditions of baseball and film when, for the fifth consecutive year, it hosts the Baseball Film Festival in Cooperstown, Oct. 1-3. The Hall of Fame is accepting submissions for the 2010 Baseball Film Festival through Aug. 13. Films can be of any length […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
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 […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Thanks to a comment by Robert Loy, I had a “Homer Simpson” moment for totally forgetting about a crucial Salinger/baseball connection. Loy wrote, “What I want to know is why the ever-litigious Salinger didn’t sue Bill Kinsella over being included in ‘Shoeless Joe.’ And if he was okay with it why did they change it […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The MLB Network will present Holy Land Hardball, the documentary about the lone season of the Israel Baseball League, on Sunday, Jan. 10 at 10 p.m.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Sorry, almost done with this catching up business, so bear with me. For those of you who haven’t seen it, here’s my take on the November session of Yankees Fantasy Camp in the Dec, 17 issue of the New Jersey Jewish News. In addition, My teammate Ira Jaskoll wrote this piece for the Jewish Magazine […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
This is the time of year when we get the lists of the best and worst movies, books, etc. of the year. And because this is 2009, we get the bonus best/worst of the decade. Larry Tye’s Satchel was selected by The New York Times as one of the 100 notable books of the year, […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
See how well you can do on this Mental Floss quiz about the 1988 film version of Eliot Asinof’s classic about the 1919 Black Sox. I had a perfect score; I’m just sayin’.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
This week in baseball books, featuring the best-sellers according to Amazon.com on Friday, December 4. Title Rank General Baseball Americana: Treasures from the Library of Congress (565) 1 The Yankee Years, by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci (731) 2 The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series: The Story of […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
For all the best intentions, hopes, and excitement, the Israel Baseball League lasted just one season. Tepid responses by the media and native-born population, poor playing conditions, and questionable business practices all led to the league’s downfall after its 2007 debut. Little of that gloom, however, is evidenced in Holy Land Hardball, a documentary about […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will recognize the twin traditions of baseball and film when, for the fourth consecutive year, it hosts the Baseball Film Festival in Cooperstown, Oct. 2-4. Thirteen films, with themes ranging from women in baseball to a baseball league in Israel, will be screened as filmmakers compete for […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
As per this piece from The Playlist blog. These questions were aimed at Pitt on a red carpet stop (a horrible, soulless place to conduct a mini, 30-second interview) so don’t expect anything too earth shattering. But he was asked if he thinks the “Moneyball project can be salvaged and go into extra innings. “My […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Channel surfing over the weekend. Found a few baseball flicks of varying quality. Don’t Look Back: The Story of Leroy “Satchel” Paige, a 1981 biopic starring Lou Gossett, Jr. as Paige, Cleavon Little as some annoying sidekick named “Rabbit,” and Clifton Davis as Cool Papa Bell. Came in on a scene where Paige is auditioning […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
From the famous Monty Python “Parrot Sketch.” Why do I bring this up? because Moneyball, the movie, may not be dead after all. Sony Pictures Entertainment has quietly moved to salvage its troubled movie project “Moneyball” by hiring the prominent screenwriter Aaron Sorkin for a quick rewrite, while looking to add Scott Rudin, known for […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
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
