Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Combining two themes here to bring you some recent podcasts. * Craig Robinson, author of the new Flip Flop Fly Ball: An Infographic Baseball Adventure (See all Humor Books), was on the July 19 edition of Slate’s Hang Up and Listen. There are several excellent questions about Robinson’s though processes as he comes up with […]
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From the Baseball Hall of Fame, this list of programs in the months ahead: A Celebration of Black History Month – Feb. 21-25: The Hall of Fame will host a week’s worth of programs celebrating Black History Month. Programs will feature Artifact Spotlights, films that feature the stories of Negro leagues legends and a walkthrough […]
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premieres tomorrow on PBS. Consult your local listings. From The New York Times: “Baseball Continued: Between Rebirth and Calamity“ From The Atlantic: “Burns Back at Bat“
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The recent program at the Burbank Library seems to have sparked national attention to Bouton’s classic. Here are a few more items for your consideration: Our friend, Tom Hoffarth penned this nice wrap-up of the event. “It’s not a stretch to think today of Bouton as a J.D. Sallinger of sports literature,” he writes. “In […]
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Herewith the final schedule for BALL FOUR TURNS FORTY, presented by The Baseball Reliquary at the Burbank Central Library, on Saturday, Sept. 18. If you go, tell Jim that I said “Hey.” 11:00 am — 12:30 pm Introduction by Terry Cannon and Jon Leonoudakis Opening remarks by Jim Bouton Panel discussion with Q&A on Ball […]
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Some new programs are coming to a television near you. Ken Burns tacks The Tenth Inning onto his wonderful Baseball miniseries, which originally aired in 1995. The two-part, four-hour epilogue airs on PBS Sept. 28-29 at 8 p.m. EST, but as they say, check your local listings. You’ll probably have to adjust the volume on […]
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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 […]
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Ron Kates/Middle Tennessee State University (rkates@mtsu.edu) This scholarly multidisciplinary anthology examines the intersection of baseball and class in American and global cultures. While embracing the rich history of themes of class and class conflict in baseball fiction, poetry, and drama, this collection also seeks to extend the discussion throughout other disciplines, some even far afield […]
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Former NY Times reporter Claire Smith will be the keynote speaker at the 22nd Annual Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, which kicks off (pardon the football metaphor) on Wednesday, June 2 and runs til Friday, June 4. Having attended one of these, I can tell you that it’s great fun, despite the scholarly […]
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If you happen to be in Cooperstown this weekend: National Pastime, a new musical comedy about a fictitious, unbeatable baseball team, will be presented during a special performance on Saturday, May 1, at 7 p.m. in the Hall of Fame’s Grandstand Theater. The play — written by Tony Sportiello, with words and music by Al Tapper — tells […]
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The Baseball Reliquary presents “Lasordapalooza,” an exhibition surveying the life and times of Tommy Lasorda, April 13-May 28, at the Pomona Public Library, Pomona, California. According to the press release from the Reliquary, a nonprofit, educational organization “dedicated to fostering an appreciation of American art and culture through the context of baseball history and to […]
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To mark the opening of spring training, I will be making my podcast debut tomorrow (Feb. 16) at 11 p.m. Eastern, on BBA Baseball Talk, a weekly program on Blog Talk Radio. The Baseball Bloggers Alliance is a confederation of 132 blogs working together for collaboration and discussion possibilities. This one-hour show will discuss the […]
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The Dighton Public Library is hosting “A History of Fenway” on Saturday, Jan. 30, at 1 p.m. at the lower level of Dighton Town Hall, 979 Somerset Ave. “Fenway Tours, the official guides of Fenway Park, will give an audiovisual presentation of the history of our beloved home of the Boston Red Sox. Trophies from […]
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(If you live in the Washington, DC area.) The Library of Congress will host a series of baseball films from Sept. 28-Oct. 2, as part of its “Baseball Americana Lunchtime Film Series” in the Pickford Theater of the Madison Building. Monday, Sept. 28 In Search of History: The World Series Fixed! The Black Sox Scandal […]
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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 […]
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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
* But seriously, folks…
August 4, 2009 · 4 comments
Had a good time at the SABR convention in DC. It was nice too meet so many folks who are just as nuts (if not more so) than me. Being the bookworm that I am, it was especially nice hanging out with the writers, many of whom were peddling their products in the vendors’ room. […]
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