Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Creamer, author of what many believe to be the first “adult” biography when he published Babe: The Legend Comes to Life, was the subject of this interview with the Baseball: Past and Present blog, an interesting site of which I had heretofore been ignorant. Creamer, a fixture at Sports Illustrated and other publications, is also […]
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The Negro League star known as the Black Babe Ruth was born this date 100 years ago. Books on Gibson include: Josh Gibson: Ther Power and the Darkness, by Mark Ribowsky (author of a new bio on Howard Cosell) Josh Gibson: A Life in the Negro Leagues, by William Brashler, who also wrote the novel […]
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A day late, but with all due respect to Scully, who turned 84 yesterday. Curt Smith, the go-to writer on the history of baseball broadcasting, published Pull Up a Chair: The Vin Scully Story in 2009.
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Musial turned 91 yesterday. I kind of feel badly for him. Although he’s surely one of the all-time greats, the contemporary fans rarely hears his name mentioned in the same breath as a Willie Mays or a Mickey Mantle, even though Musial’s stats are comparable, if not better. Books on Musial include: Stan Musial: Baseball’s […]
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A bit late, but O’Neil would have celebrated his 100th birthday last Sunday. In his honor, The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America.
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They were associated with other teams as well, but their primary fame came with St. Louis. Bob Gibson turns turns 76(!), while The White Rat, aka Whitey Herzog, is 80. Both are enshrined in Cooperstown. Well done, gentlemen. Stranger to the Game: The Autobiography of Bob Gibson Sixty Feet, Six Inches: A Hall of Fame […]
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Tom Seaver and His Times, by Steven Travers. Taylor Trade, 2011. I have very mixed feelings about this latest effort by Travers (A Tale of Three Cities: The 1962 Baseball Season in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco; The 1969 Miracle Mets: The Improbable Story of the World’s Greatest Underdog Team; and Dodgers Past […]
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Sometimes I wonder, with all the new books coming out every year, why anyone would want to read something they’ve already read before. So many books, so little time. But while working on the 501 Book project I came across several titles in my library that I had never read, which no doubt led to […]
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With the Cardinals in the World Series, George Vecsey made a return visit to NPR, appearing on The Leonard Lopate Show to discuss his latest book, Stan Musial: An American Life. Here’s a review from the Houston Chronicle, just because I liked the caricature so much.
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The Jewish Review of Books (shouldn’t that be Review of Jewish Books?) ran this review of Mark Kurlansky’s recent biography, Hank Greenberg: The Hero Who Didn’t Want To Be One. The piece begins with a reference to Mark Helprin’s short story, “Perfection,” which “re-imagined Bernard Malamud’s “Natural” as an adolescent Holocaust survivor whose otherworldly ability […]
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Take heart, Houston. You may have the worst team in the Majors this season, but you can relive past glorious and otherwise amuse yourselves by reading these Astros-related titles, posted by Ray Kerby and Darrell Pittman on AstrosDaily.com.
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The Yankee closer nonpareil became the all-time saves leader when he sealed yesterday’s 3-0 win against the Twins. In his honor, a few appropriate titles for your consideration: Bullpen Diaries: Mariano Rivera, Bronx Dreams, Pinstripe Legends, and the Future of the New York Yankees Heroes of the Bullpen: Baseball’s Greatest Relief Pitchers Pen Men: Baseball’s […]
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Greg Spira passed along this link to an NJ.com review of five New York-centric books, including (with a “symbolic” thumbs up-thumbs down): 1961: The Inside Story of the Maris-Mantle Home Run Chase, by Phil Pepe (-) Donnie Baseball: The Definitive Biography of Don Mattingly, by Mike Shalin (-) Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The […]
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While doing research for my project, I came across this list, published in 2002, of the 100 top sports books of all time as chosen by the editors of Sports Illustrated. Of those 100, “only” 32 were about baseball. The nerve. Anyway, here’s the SI piece, trimmed to just baseball titles, with commentary from the […]
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The first of what will probably be several lists/suggestions: Linda Holmes, over at Monkey See, the pop culture blog for NPR, offered a selection of five sports books for the summer, including Stan Musial: An American Life by George Vecsey. And, what the heck, there’s enough info to consider Scorecasting a baseball book, too. This […]
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Yonamine, the first Asian-American to play baseball in Japan, was born this date in 1925 in Honolulu. He passed away earlier this year at the age of 86. Robert Fitts published his biography — Wally Yonamine: The Man Who Changed Japanese Baseball — in 2008.
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Via Baseball-Reference.com’s Bullpen: Carlton Fisk of the White Sox, plays his 2,226 and final major league game, surpassing Bob Boone’s record of 2,225 for most games caught. (Pertinent title: Carlton Fisk: The catcher who changed “Sox”.)
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The Hall of Fame pitcher who spent his entire 18-year career with the New York Giants was born this date in 1903. Books about Hubbell include: Carl Hubbell: A Biography of the Screwball King A Pitcher’s Moment: Carl Hubbell and the Quest for Baseball Immortality And, of course, any book about the history of the […]
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Seems every Edward/Ed gets that nickname. Lopat, born in 1918, pitched 12 seasons, mostly for the juggernaut Yankees of the late 1940s-mid 1950s. He won 21 games in 1951 and led the American League in winning percentage and ERA in 1953. He was one of the subjects of Sol Gittleman’s 2007 book, Reynolds, Raschi and […]
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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
