Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
The Hall of Fame pitcher was born this date in 1871. The name was most appropriate: He completed 314 out of 381 game starts, averaging 24 wins over a relatively brief career of 10 years, including back-to-back 31+ seasons. And he didn’t even begin his big league career until age 28. Toss out an 8-8 […]
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Intro: As previously stated, the recent election of Robert Alomar and Bert Blyleven got me to thinking: how many Hall of Famers have had books written about them or penned their own stories. Here are the results. Again, this is not an all-inclusive list; almost all juvenile titles have been omitted. * * * Ryne […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, March 18, at 4 p.m. Title Rank General Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game, by John Thorn 1 The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First, by Jonah Keri […]
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Legend has it that Lloyd Waner and his brother Paul, aka “Big Poison” — both members of the Baseball Hall of Fame — received their nicknames not because they were so lethal at the plate — which they were — but because simply because some Brooklyn fans couldn’t pronounce the word “person” according to the […]
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The Bookshelf topic on the March 14 Internet broadcast of What’s on Second was some events in baseball history that are marking milestone anniversaries in 2011. Among them: Hank Greenberg’s 100th birthday Hank Greenberg: The Hero Who Didn’t Want to Be One (Jewish Lives), by Kurlansky Hammerin’ Hank Greenberg, by Sommer Joe DiMaggio;’s 56-game hitting […]
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Bobby Bonds, Barry’s daddy, was born this date in 1946. Good genes: Papa won three Gold Gloves and was a three-time All-Star. Bobby Bonds, Rising Superstar, by Sullivan, 1976
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Kirby Puckett, the Hall of Fame outfielder for the Minnesota Twins, was brn this date in 1960. Books on Puckett include: Puck! Kirby Puckett: Baseball’s Last Warrior, by Carlson, 2001 Be the Best You Can Be, by Puckett, 1993 I Love This Game!: My Life and Baseball, by Puckett, 1993
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Dock Ellis, perhaps baseball’s trippiest pitcher, was born this date in 1945. Here‘s the entry I posted upon his untimely death in 2008. And a Robin Williams homage to Ellis’ most impressive feat: pitching a no-hitter while on LSD. The pitcher collaborated with the eminent Donald Hall on Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball […]
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Ballplayers have had their careers cut short for all sorts of reasons. Jackie Jensen, a three-time All Star and 1958 AL MVP, couldn’t deal with the fear of flying. He averaged 21 home runs and almost 100 RBIs over nine full seasons in an 11-year career, spent mostly with the Red Sox. He retired in […]
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Intro: As previously stated, the recent election of Robert Alomar and Bert Blyleven got me to thinking: how many Hall of Famers have had books written about them or penned their own stories. Here are the results. Again, this is not an all-inclusive list; almost all juvenile titles have been omitted. * * * “R” […]
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One of our birthday boys is in the Hall of Fame, although their numbers are amazingly similar. 162-Game Avg Player A Player B At bats 638 586 Runs 97 102 Hits 190 171 Doubles 29 30 Triples 6 7 Home Runs 30 33 RBI 113 104 Walks 52 83 Strikeouts 110 144 Batting Average .298 […]
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Willie Stargell, the heart and soul of the Pittsburgh Prates “family,” was born this date in 1940. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1988 Willie Stargell: An Autobiography, by Stargell with Bird, 1984 Out of left field: Willie Stargell and the Pittsburgh Pirates (A Prairie House book), Adelman, 1976 Lefty Grove was […]
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Intro: As previously stated, the recent election of Robert Alomar and Bert Blyleven got me to thinking: how many Hall of Famers have had books written about them or penned their own stories. Here are the results. Again, this is not an all-inclusive list; almost all juvenile titles have been omitted. * * * Hal […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Feb 25, at 1:30 p.m. Title Rank General Baseball Prospectus 2011 1 Baseball America 2011 Prospect Handbook: The 2011 Expert Guide to Baseball Prospects and MLB Organization Rankings 2 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis (Kindle version) 3 Moneyball: The […]
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The Hall of Fame pitcher who won “only” 197 games (while losing 140), was born this date in 1891. Charles Arthur Vance spent most of his career toiling for the Brooklyn Robins when they weren’t very good. I guess his seven consecutive years of leading the NL in strikeouts earned him the nickname as an […]
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Celebrating a couple of 19th-century Hall of Famers today. Wee Willie Keeler was born this date in 1872. He was a prominent member of John McGraw’s first group of rowdies as described by Burt Solomon in Where They Ain’t: The Fabled Life and Untimely Death of the Original Baltimore Orioles, the Team That Gave Birth […]
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Congratulations to Mark Stratton of Columbia, MO, winner of the February Facebook fan drawing of Pie Traynor: A Baseball Biography. The March prize will be Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game, by John Thorn, recently appointed as official baseball historian by Major League Baseball. Tell your friends!
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Wally Yonamine was the first Asian-American to play baseball in Japan, died on Monday at the age 0f 85. As a Nisei — a first generation American of Japanese descent — Yonamine had many Jackie Robinson moments when he debuted for the Yomiuri Giants in 1951. His story was chronicled in Robert Fitts’ excellent biography, […]
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I’ll have to pick up on these again, now that the (pre-) season is getting under way again. The Feb. 28 issue cover sported young Atlanta players Fred Freeman and Jason Heyward and additional items on some top rookies to watch (follow the rest of the links therein). The March 7 issue includes a short […]
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Hall of Famer Mel Ott was born this date in 1909. Ott spent his entire 22-year career with the New York Giants, splitting playing time with managing from 1942-47 (he also led the team from the bench in 1948.) He died from injuries sustained in a car accident in 1958 at the age of 49 […]
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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
