Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
The pride of The Greatest Generation died yesterday at the age of 92. Feller was one of the bona fide star athletes who served with distinction in World War II, sacrificing prime seasons away from the game when they might have been able to find ways around the draft; Feller could easily have claimed status […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Mo Vaughn turns 43 today. I never saw a hitter get so bad so quick. He was a slugger for the Red Sox from 1991-98, winning the AL MVP in ’95 and had two more great years with the Angels before falling through a trap door with the Mets and calling it a career. For […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Kirkus Reviews just posted several “tops” lists, including two baseball titles. Jane Leavy’s The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood is among the top biographies of 2010. Dan Epstein’s Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging ’70s has been deemed as one of […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Craig Biggio, the last player to join the 3,000-hit club, turns 45 today. The book on him: Biggio: The Final Game. Honorary mention: Scott Hatteberg. Who’s he, you ask? Basically, Hatteberg — who walked 562 and struck out just 503 times and had a .361 OBP over his 14-year career — was one of the […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
A whole bunch today, beginning with Fergie Jenkins, the Hall of Fame pitcher, who turns 68. You often read about how dark-skinned Hispanics players such as Robert Clemente or Vic Power were amazed by the prejudice they encountered in the 1950s and 1960s, coming from countries where none existed. I wonder how Jenkins felt, coming […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Bill Nicholson was born this date in 1914. He was considered one of the great sluggers of his generation, leading the National League in home runs in 1943 and 1944. He retired in 1953 with 235 four-baggers. With so many athletes serving in WWII. I would love to see — just out of curiosity — […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Dec. 10, at 11 a.m. Title Rank General The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy 1 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis 2 Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back, by Josh […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Mike Mussina, who turns 42 today, was considered one of the brighter players in the game, if for no ohter reason than the fact he did crossword puzzles…in pen, yet! He shared the spotlight with Mets’ pitcher Tom Glavine as the focus of John Feinstein’s 2008 book, Living on the Black: Two Pitchers, Two Teams, […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Anyone else surprised that “Little General” was Johnny Bench‘s nickname? The Hall of Fame catcher turns 63 today. Books on Bench include: From Behind the Plate Catch You Later: The Autobiography of Johnny Bench Catch Every Ball: How to Handle Life’s Pitches In addition, Bo Belinsky was born this date in1936. He collaborated with the […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Larry Bowa turns 65 today. The long-time Phillies shortstop (he also played with the Cubs before batting .105 in his final year with the Mets; yeah, thanks for that) was also a short-tempered manager for the Padres and Phils. He wrote two books: Bleep: Larry Bowa Manages in 1988 and Larry Bowa: I Still Hate […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Walter Alston was born this date in 1911. He struck out in his only at bat: Sept. 27, 1936 as member of the St. Louis Cardinals against the Chicago Cubs. But he more than made up for that as a Hall of Fame manager for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers. Alston was inducted into the Hall […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Bo Jackson turns 48 today. The pop culture icon published Bo Knows Bo, Autobiography of a Ballplayer with Dick Schaap in 1990.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Catching up after the holidays, we have: Bill Freehan turns 65 today. The backbone of the Detroit Tigers, Freehan published Behind the Mask; an Inside Baseball Diary in 1970. Minnie Minoso, aka The Cuban Comet, turns 85. He published Extra Innings: My Life in Baseball in 1983 and followed it up 11 years later with […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Joe “Ducky” Medwick, Hall of Fame outfielder for the “Gashouse Gang” St. Louis Cardinals and other teams, was born this date in 1911. A lifetime .324 hitter over 17 seasons, Medwick was involved in a famous (or infamous) World Series event: “His hard-charging style of play got him pulled out of the seventh game of […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Luis Tiant turns 70 today. I’m surprised, I thought he was 70 back in the 70s. :: crickets :: Anyway… He collaborated with Ed Fitzgerald in his 1976 “memoirgraphy,” El Tiante, the Luis Tiant Story.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
A belated Happy Birthday to Stan Musial, who turned 90 yesterday. George Vecsey, who is working on a biography of the Hall of Fame outfielder who spent his entire 22-year career with the St. Louis Cardinals, offered his own greetings in his NY Times column yesterday. (My favorite Musial stat: 1,815 hits at home, 1,815 […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
(Sorry, no nickname. This is becoming more and more of a problem as the players get younger.) Robert James Monday (how do you get Rick from that? You get Rick from Richard; you get Bob from Robert) turns 65 today. A solid outfielder for the Athletics (he was the number one overall pick in the […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Hall of Famer Roy Campanella was born this day in 1921. Books about the ill-fated catcher include: His own It’s Good to Be Alive, first published in 1959, a year after the accident that put him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Campy: The Two Lives of Roy Campanella, an in-depth biography […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Also born this date, Jay Hook, who earned the first of the Mets’ 3,734 victories.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Also known by Mets fans as The Franchise, Tom Seaver turns 66 today. This is one of the “heroes” of my youth and an education that regardless of your perceived value, an athlete is basically a commodity, to be bought, sold, traded, discarded (although that term seems a bit harsh). After expressing dissatisfaction with the […]
{ 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
