Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of 10 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 22. Title Rank General The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy 1 Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back, by Josh Hamilton 2 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael […]
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The other “Chairman of the Board” turns 82 today, a day after the birthday of his Yankee friend and teammate, Mickey Mantle. In his last two seasons with the Yankees, Ford — inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1974 — had a record of 4-9. Subtract that from his career totals and he would […]
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Several high-profile ballplayers share Oct. 20 as a birthday. Tops on the list: Mickey Mantle. There are dozens of books about The Mick. Many of the more recent ones examines his flaws as a person well as his strengths as an athlete, including Jane Leavy’s just-published The Last Boy. Since this book — and by […]
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To Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown, born this date in 1876. The Hall of Famer pitched mostly for the Chicago Cubs the last time they were good, compiling a record of 239-130, 2.06 in 14 seasons. He won 20 or more games for six consecutive seasons. And he didn’t even ame his big league debut until […]
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Many thanks to Greg Spira for these outlets that ran reviews of Jane Leavy’s new biography, The Last Boy: From Keith Olberman in the Sunday NY Times Book Review section. Upshot: “Leavy comes as close as perhaps anyone ever has to answering “What makes Mantle Mantle?” She transcends the familiarity of the subject, cuts through […]
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The veteran Tigers’ strongman, Horton turns 68 today. Horton played most of his 18-year career in Detroit, leading them to the 1968 World Championship with 36 home runs and 86 RBIs. He finished with 325 homers, 1,163 ribbies, and a .273 batting average and was one of the most feared batters at the time. Grant […]
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Art Shamsky, a favorite of Jewish baseball fans everywhere, turns 69 today. I ran into Shamsky last Sunday at the memorial service for Maury Allen. Still looking good and hoping for a resurrection of professional baseball in Israel; he was manager of the Modi’in Miracle in 2007, the only season for the Israel Baseball League. […]
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This day marks the birth of Rube Waddell (1876), a Hall-of-Fame hurler from the early part of the 20th century. Rube Waddell: The Zany, Brilliant Life of a Strikeout Artist, by Alan Howard Levy Just a Big Kid: The Life and Times of Rube Waddell, by Paul Proia Another member of the Hall, slugger Eddie […]
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The NY Daily News begins a series of excerpts from Jane Leavy’s new book: “Mickey Mantle finally opens up about childhood sexual abuse” Richard Sandomir of The New York Times offers this piece. Expect a full-blown review in Sunday’s Book Review Section. James Bailey wrote this review for Baseball America. Upshot: “Mission accomplished, and powerfully […]
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To Hall of Famer Joe Cronin, who was born this date in 1906. Cronin was one of those baseball lifers who excelled as a player and then went on to have a lengthy career as a manager and front office executive. Joe Cronin: A Life in Baseball, by Mark Armour From Sandlots to League President: […]
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Happy birthday, Joe. Can’t believe you’re 70 today. The title of his book — Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud, written with Berry Stainback and published in 1975 — was perfect. He was pretty good — a three time All-Star and Golve Glove winner — but had the bad timing to be on the Yankees […]
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From NorthernNJ.com, this story about author Kal Wagenheim and the re-release of his 1970s biography, Clemente!
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of 10 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 8. 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 Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu: John Updike on Ted Williams, […]
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Jonathan Mahler, author of Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City, wrote this profile of Texas Rangers president and Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan in this Oct. 3 Sunday Times Magazine. I like Ryan. He’s old school. None of the pitch-count BS. […]
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Can’t believe the season is almost over. The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of 2 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 1. Title Rank General Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu: John Updike on Ted Williams, by John Updike 1 The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy 2 Moneyball: […]
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To Hall of Famer Rod Carew, who turns 65 today. Carew, by Carew with Ira Berkow Rod Carew’s Art and Science of Hitting Also marking the occasion, Mark McGwire, who perhaps could have been a Hall of Famer, turns 47. There were two “waves” of books about Big Mac. The first came in 1998 when […]
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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
A matter of interpretation: Publishers’ publicity departments praising their authors
October 8, 2010 · 2 comments
So yesterday I wrote about Jane Leavy’s new book on Mickey Mantle, published by Harper Collins, which got the “excerpt treatment” from Sports Illustrated. Since I have yet to get my copy, I started looking around to see if there were other excerpts available. I eventually found my way to Leavy’s page on the Harper […]
Tagged as: Allan Barra, Jane Leavy, Mickey Mantle
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