Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
From Stephen J. Dubner on The New York Times‘ Freakonomics blog (It’s okay; the original Freakonomics still sits on my bookshelf), this assessment of the decline of Western civilization, as evidenced by the boorish behavior of fans at last night’s interleague game between the Mets and Yankees.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will host a blood drive, sponsored by the American Red Cross in conjunction with Bassett Healthcare, on Saturday, June 27 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Museum’s Education Gallery. Blood donors will receive free admission to the Museum on Saturday, and Museum members will receive […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
This item popped up in my Google alerts. Fifty years ago (June 10, to be precise), Colavito — who played primarily for the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians from the mid-1950s to late 1960s — became the sixth batter in the modern era to hit four homers in one game. (By the way, this may […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Because you can’t beat a dead horse enough: Alyssa Milano: Since nobody cares anymore about Alyssa Milano as an actress anymore, she apparently has concluded that we should all care that she’s a big enough baseball fan to write a book about herself going to games, sell sports-related clothing to women, and seduce at least […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Found this cool website: Dipity.com. It’s a site about memes, which, according to Wikipedia, are “postulated unit[s] or element[s] of cultural ideas, symbols or practices that gets transmitted from one mind to another through speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena.” But you knew that already, didn;t you. Anyway, I added The Bookshelf to Diptiy. […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Keith Olberman writes the “Baseball Nerd” under the MLB.blogs banner. In this entry, he takes Curt Smith to task for an error in Pull Up a Chair, his new biography of legendary Dodgers announcer Vin Scully. Olberman, who makes his living being contrary, used to be a baseball book reviewer in a former life. “[O]ne […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
In this case, it’s the craft of writing. Wrightinhood.com posted this list of sayings from some of the greats in the game, including Ty Cobb, Yogi Berra, Bill Veeck, and Crash Davis (?) and how they can apply to the creative process.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
In his latest ramblings, Clemens claimed his family history of heart disease contraindicated the use of steroids. “Our family has a history of heart conditions,” Clemens told Mike and Mike in the Morning this morning. “My brother had a heart attack in his late 40s. My stepdad died of a heart attack. I mean, it […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Jayson Bay, by the Boston Red Sox “The Scream,” by Edvard Munch
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The Yankee game was on TV last night and I noticed from the centerfield shot that many of the seats behind the plate were vacant. At first I just chalked it up to the early hour; people probably hadn’ arrived yet. I subsequently switched to the Mets game and thought no more of it. Until […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The March 31 episode of All Things Considered considered the story of the 140-year-old organ at St. Malachy Church in Philadelphia, which was damaged when the ceiling collapsed 12 years ago, damaging. Now, a fundraiser for the organ’s repair will have a baseball theme because the original builder’s grandson wrote the words to Take Me […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
At the risk of blowing my own horn, I wanted to say that my essays on Shawn Green, Hank Greenberg, and Sandy Koufax are included in the recently-released Encyclopedia of Jewish American Popular Culture, edited by Jack. R. Fischel with Susan M. Ortmann (Greenwood Press). I’m kvelling.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
I wish George F. Will would publish another baseball book. In the meantime, here’s his quiz from the current issue of Newsweek. Read an excerpt from Bunts. Read an excerpt from Men at Work.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The following comes from my Mensa page-a-day calendar (no wisecracks) for March 19: The storage box for my baseball cards has room for most of my cards, and, on a nearby shelf, I keep the extra 16 cards that do not fit. If I expand the length of the box by 30%, I’ll have room […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
USA Today published this list of “Five authors make a pitch for baseball.” I wonder how hard Milano’s PR people are pushing the book. To be honest, I have not read it and want to be fair. But to have hers get top billing over thoughtful and laborious efforts by the likes of Paul Dickson, […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Because I keep cookbooks on the shelf, and that’s close enough for jazz… The New York Times ran two pieces today on the food fans can expect at the new area ballparks, one for the Yankees, and one for the Mets.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
From mentalfloss.com: If there’s one author who bridges the cultural divide between the United States and Japan, it’s Haruki Murakami. The 60-year-old Kyoto native started writing relatively late in life, at age 29, and it was America’s national pastime that inspired him. While attending a baseball game in Tokyo, Murakami saw American Dave Hilton hit […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
More on the decision by MLB to cease the printed publication of the Red and Green Books. Murray Chass wrote about this awhile ago, and sure enough, it’s become a generational thing. David Appelman of FanGraphs.com: … as a younger person who uses the Internet (and sometimes even writes about baseball), I actually do have […]
{ 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
* Another list of "bests"
July 8, 2009
I participated in a survey of the “best” baseball fiction and non-fiction books from the Hardball Cooperative site. It was an honor to be included with such learned contributors. Of course, one person’s meat is another’s poison; the comment’s made to the Baseball Think Factory, to which a link was posted, indicates that quite clearly. […]
Tagged as: baseball books
{ Comments on this entry are closed }