Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
♦ With the latest scandal, I wonder if books about the Black Sox will get a bump in readership? To catch up, here’s a piece from The Atlantic: “Baseball’s Big Whiff on Gambling.” ♦ Journalist Terry Moran posted this piece on “The Storyteller: Joe Posnanski on what sports tells us about love, loss and belonging” […]
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Although we may be at opposite ends of the political spectrum, George F. Will and I agree on one thing, “Baseball is wonderful,” as expressed in this opinion piece in the Washington Post by none other than Ken Burns, who used Will — among many others — as talking heads on his seminal Baseball miniseries. […]
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Starting July 14, the price of a First-Class Forever stamp is going from 68 cents to 73 cents. Too bad I can’t stock on this nifty Hank Aaron model, but it’s not due out until the 31st. With the All-Star Game fast approaching, this interview with Kevin Baker, author of The New York Game from […]
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♦ As we celebrated the 50th anniversary of Hank Aaron’s breaking the all-time home run record, I’m kind of surprised he hadn’t already had a stamp issued in his honor. ♦ Emily Nemens, author of The Cactus League: A Novel, wrote “On the All-But-Invisible Role of Interpreters, in Literature and in Baseball” for Lithub.com. I […]
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Well, spring training is well underway. And this year, pretty much like every year, I promise myself I will keep up with every team, not just the Mets.I finally shelled out for a subscription to Baseball Prospectus, even though I consider it a bit too analytics-driven for a numbskull like me who has no interest […]
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Oh, the weather outside is frightful… Funny how you never hear songs about winter after Christmas. Why is that? It’s still the season. “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” doesn’t seem to have any holiday significance. Same for “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” which has certain problems but we won’t go into that now. Moving on… ♦ […]
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♦ The Baseball Hall of Fame will hold a screening of Fielding Dreams: A Celebration of Baseball Scouts on Thursday, Jan. 18. “[T]his new documentary goes beyond moneyball [sic] and features dozens of interviews with some of the scouting legends of the game, including 5 scouts who helped build the 2023 World Series Champion Texas […]
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New book? Where has this writer been? The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams came out in August and has been on the “Baseball Best-Sellers” list ever since. (Relatively new, I suppose.) Congrats to the late Gerry Fraley, who won the BBWAA Career Excellence Award on Tuesday. Ohio favorite […]
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♦ Roy Hobbs leads off this New York Times quiz about characters from iconic novels. If you don’t get the answer, you’re dead to me. ♦ This “Behind the Best-Seller List” piece from the Times about Joe Posnanski’s Why We Love Baseball is already online but will appear in the Oct. 1 book review section. […]
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As you know, I almost never include children’s books here. But in this case I’ll make an exception because it was written by former MLBer Ryan Lavarnway. The fact that it is about his experiences with Team Israel for the World Baseball Classic is a bonus, especially as we enter the High Holiday season. Frederic […]
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So I have several “Google alerts” to let me know about all things baseball books. I hit the jackpot today. ♦ From The Sporting News (or at least what’s left of it now that the print edition is gone), this Q&A with Joe Posnanski on his new book, Why We Love Baseball: A History in […]
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I love these studies that take a “scholarly” look at the game. So much time spent on such a relatively unimportant slice of life. You heard me. I said what I said. Coming soon (I hope) to a theater near you: The League, a documentary about Black baseball. The film — from director Sam Pollard […]
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♦ The Atlantic published an article on the current state of the game as the cover story of its July/August issue. Funny, the online version is titled “Moneyball Broke Baseball” while the cover seems to offer a slightly more upbeat spin with “How Baseball Saved Itself.” ♦ This is the time of year when we […]
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Early on, it looks like the big book is Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball’s Brightest Minds Created Sports’ Biggest Mess, by Evan Drellich. Numerous reviews and features on the Astros’ cheating scandal include “New book on Houston’s sign-stealing scandal illuminates backstory to Cardinals hacking case” from the St. Louis Post Dispatch (paywall); “Reporter who […]
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Tyler Kepner was a recent guest on WYSO radio to discuss his book, The Grandest Stage: A History of the World Series. Speaking of Kepner, he published this baseball quiz in The New York Times this past weekend. The Bradenton Times posted this piece about Playing Through The Pain – Ken Caminiti and the Steroids […]
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♦ Ron Shelton’s The Church of Baseball: The Making of Bull Durham: Home Runs, Bad Calls, Crazy Fights, Big Swings, and a Hit is among USA Today’s “Best Books of 2022.” Here’s our Bookshelf Conversation with Shelton. Meanwhile, True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson by Kostya Kennedy and The Grandest Stage: A History of […]
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A semi-regular (I guess that sounds better than “irregular”) attempt to catch up on the baseball book and other news wince my last similar posting. * NY Daily News sportswriter/author Bill Madden contributed this list of the best baseball books of all time. All are worthy of the accolades (A Day in the Bleachers, The […]
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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
Bits and Pieces, November 13, 2025
November 13, 2025
♦ You don’t hear that much about this topic, but here’s a piece from the Washington Post on “The 10 best sports theme songs of all time — and what makes them great.” It’s kind of interesting to see/hear all the football tunes in one handy spot to compare. Not surprisingly, there’s only one baseball […]
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