Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Frank, not Buzz. Entries are invited for the 2012 Baseball Film Festival at the Hall of Fame. From the press release: Baseball and the movies grew up together in America, becoming a part of the fabric of the nation that made both famous. Their shared history is on display every day at the National Baseball […]
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If you thought it was a stretch to make a feature film out of Michael Lewis’ non-fiction baseball classic Moneyball, what say you about Buzz Bissinger’s Three Nights in August, which considers a 2003 series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs? According to this piece on variety.com, Billy Bob Thornton will play the […]
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A periodic attempt to catch up on recent items and links. ♦ I love this entry by SB Nation’s Grant Brisbee on the 17-inning game between the Red Sox and Orioles on May 6 because it’s so damn literary, comparing the sportswriter’s hyperbole to the epic storyteller. ♦ And this one brief from The Hardball […]
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This week’s podcast is a little different. Ari Alexenberg is no author (although as a pitcher I’m sure his “authored” some great games over his long amateur career). Rather he is the subject of Coming Home, a documentary currently under production. The film tells the story of his participation in the only season of the […]
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(Kids, ask your parents/grandparents.) Rob Neyer, baseball expert and cinemaphile, noted on SB Nation that Sunday would have been William Frawley‘s 125th birthday. Frawley, a hard-core baseball fan, is perhaps best known for his role as Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy (and later My Three Sons), but he was a veteran actor dating back […]
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It’s kind of neat to read critiques about baseball media from sources you don’t expect. Like this review of the film version of Moneyball from TheHindu.com. Unfortunately, the picture came up empty at the Oscars. Oh, well.
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Well, perhaps not the real Sportsphone, which was popular back in the 1980s. For the price of a call, you could hear updated recorded messages about what was going on on the diamond, the court, the field, etc. And to be technical about it, the How to Do Everything podcast isn’t technically NPR. However it […]
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Robinson was born this date in 1919, which means he would have been 93 today. Sadly, he passed away almost 40 years ago, way too young. It isn’t necessary to repeat all the sacrifices he made, all the doors he opened. One would hope everyone in this country — baseball fan or not — would […]
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The nominations for the Academy Awards were announced this morning and Moneyball came away with a “cycle” of sorts. The unlikely cinematic version of Michael Lewis’ best-seller is up for Best Picture, Best Actor (Brad Pitt), Best Supporting Actor (Jonah Hill), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin, and Stan Chervin). UPDATE: Moneyball also […]
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Now that Moneyball is out on DVD/Blue-Ray/etc., look for a new round of reviews on the film. Here are two to get you started. The first comes from Over The Monster, a Red Sox-centric blog. The second is a “live-blog” post by Rob Neyer at Baseball Nation. I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I’ve never […]
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With the Golden Globes just handed out and the Oscars still on the horizon, look for more lists like these. Jeff Euston over at Baseball Prospectus offered his top ten faves, including some unusual titles such as Brewster’s Millions and Rookie of the Year. This prompted movie buff Rob Neyer to submit this one, which […]
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In the spirit of the holiday, I watched a baseball film called Milltown Pride. Produced by Bob Jones University, it is a Christian film with a message that I don’t feel precluded from understanding simply because I am a Jew, so here goes. There are many good points to the movie. The lessons — the […]
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‘Tis the season for the various awards to start announcing their nominees. Surprisingly, Moneyball is up for four Golden Globe Awards, including best drama (!), actor in a movie drama (Brad Pitt), supporting actor in a movie (Jonah Hill), and best screenplay (Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian). Rob Neyer, SB Nation’s baseball editor and a […]
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Okay, this time I mean it. These will be the last links to some interesting pieces about the new film. From Forbes, “Can Brad Pitt Pitch ‘Moneyball’ to Box Office Glory?” From Entertainment Weekly‘s “Inside Movies” column, “‘Moneyball’: How audiences fell back in love with screenwriting.” From Pop Matters, “Moneyball: By The Numbers” From The […]
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As promised, here are the baseball-related items from the current issue, which features the release of Moneyball as its cover story. Austin Murphy on “Brad Pitt Deals“ Tom Verducci on “The Art of Winning An (Even More) Unfair Game“ And a brief history of Sabermetrics Also, Joe Posnanski on uber Cubs fan Steve Hirschtick.
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is available on Amazon.com,
In my most recent "day job," I was the sports and features editor for a weekly New Jersey newspaper, where I hosted another blog. Busy, busy, busy.
I did a profile piece on the award-winning cartoonist Arnold Roth and he was nice enough to "immortalize" me.
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
Bits and pieces
February 10, 2012 · 2 comments
Haven’t done one of these in awhile, but I have a bit of backlog I’d like to clear, so here goes. * We’ll have to agree to disagree. One card collector can’t stand the new 2012 Topps series. Another calls it the best one yet. What do you think? * LibraryJournal.com posted this piece reviewing […]
Tagged as: Casey Award, Dirk Hayhurst, Hank Greenberg, Jim Brosnan, Joe DiMaggio, Michael Lewis, The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran, Year The Yankees Lost the Pennant
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