Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“). In addition, occasionally […]
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A Baseball Gaijin: Chasing a Dream to Japan and Back, by Aaron Fischman. Foreword by Don Nomura. Sports Publishing, 2024. Every pitcher has a story, don’t he? Tony Barnette was selected by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 10th round of the 2006 draft. After four years of moderate success in the minors, he made the […]
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A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“). In addition, occasionally […]
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♦ Adding to the previous B&P item about gathering Hall of Fame induction speeches: you would expect writers to be more comfortable with the process than the players. Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell was the 2025 winner of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s Career Excellence Award. Here is his acceptance speech. Side note: According […]
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Dick Allen, Dave Parker, CC Sabathia, Ichiro Suzuki and Billy Wagner will become the newest inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame this Sunday. What else to they have in common? They all have books written by or about them. Dick Allen Crash: The Life and Times of Dick Allen, by Dick Allen and Tim […]
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From the pages of On This Day in Baseball History: A Day-by-Day Account of Baseball’s Most Indelible Moments, by the Baseball Time Machine… 1941: Lefty Grove of the Boston Red Sox wins his 300th game in a 10-6 victory over the visiting Cleveland Indians. It would be his final win in his final season. Lefty […]
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A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“). In addition, occasionally […]
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When I was a kid, the legends of the game included the likes of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and other players from the game in the post-Black Sox era (i.e., during and after the Roaring Twenties). But needles to say there were superstars before then, many of whom today’s fans have never heard. (As an […]
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A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“). In addition, occasionally […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“). In addition, occasionally […]
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1892: Wilbert Robinson sets the record by going 7-for-7 and driving in 11 runs in a 25-4 beat down by the Baltimore Orioles vs. the St. Louis Browns. Uncle Robbie, by Jack Kavanaugh and Norman Macht (2000) 1959: Rocky Colavito becomes the eighth player to hit four homers in one game in the Indians 11-8 […]
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1964: Sandy Koufax tosses his third no-hitter. Koufax, by Koufax with Ed Linn (1966) 1968: Don Drysdale, Koufax’s long-time teammate, throws his sixth consecutive shutout, en route to 58 2/3 straight innings without allowing a run. Don Drysdale: Up and In: The Life of a Dodgers Legend, by Mark Whicker (2025) […]
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A couple of days ago was the anniversary of Cal Ripken Jr. beginning his iron man streak. Today it’s Lou Gehrig, who played the first of 2,130 straight in 1925 when he flied out as a pinch-hitter against Walter Johnson in a 5-3 loss to the Washington Senators. Lou Gehrig, Pride of the Yankees, by […]
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A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“). In addition, occasionally […]
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See below for an update. A post on Facebook reminded me that Moe Berg, one of the most interesting characters to ever don spikes, died on this date in 1972. The number of languages Berg could speak varied. Casey Stengel once supposedly, “He can speak seven languages but can’t hit in any of ’em.” […]
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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
