Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Time to play catch-up again. From Great Britain’s Guardian, this article about Billy Beane and the Moneyball phenomenon. Why on earth would it appear in a British paper? Because Beane is “Tottenham Hotspur fanatic, as well as a fan of the team’s coach, Sir Alex Ferguson. A list of recommended baseball novels from the Campaign […]
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From The Comics Curmodgeon, one of my favorites. (Ignore “The Family Circus”; I always do.)
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Time to play catch-up: From a rival site about baseball book reviews, this piece on Hammerin’ Hank, George Almighty and The Say Hey Kid (another of those books that uses words like “greatest” and “forever” in its title). An oldie, but good: this review of The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, by Douglass Wallop, […]
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It’s not often you scoop The New York Times. Back in November of ’07, I wrote this review on Mike Vacarro’s 1941: The Greatest Year in Sports in which I wrote, “Of course, there’s always a problem, especially in the world of sports, of declaring anything ‘the greatest.’ But it does make for some interesting reflection […]
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First Salon, now Slate. Is anyone besides me old enough to remember the Quaker cereals Quisp and Quake? Same as Cap’n Crunch, only different shapes and cartoon characters. Anyway… Greg Spira contributes this thoughtful column on why so many American players are born in August, citing John Holway’s 2000 book, The Baseball Astrologer. Upshot: Since […]
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Because I used to keep model rockets on my bookshelf…
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in 1929, the Yankees become first team to wear digits on uniforms. Numbers are assigned based on the order in the lineup thus Earle Combs wore #1, Mark Koenig #2, Babe Ruth #3, Lou Gehrig #4, Bob Meusel #5, Tony Lazzeri #6, Leo Durocher #7, Johnny Grabowski #8, Benny Bengough #9, and Bill Dickey #10 […]
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Eric Seidman, a senior at Penn State, has written Bridging the Statistical Gap, which “takes readers inside the sport’s box scores and stat sheets,” according to this article in the university’s Daily Collegian Online. The book is expected to be released in May. Some topics include: Great Batting Average Debate: What batting average does and […]
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(Because I keep some old gloves on my bookshelf…) While looking for some artwork for the piece on the Forbes baseball special, I came across this 2001 article from the magazine on why they’re not making baseball gloves like they used to. Upshot: [T]oday’s inactive, rushed-to- slaughter, feedlot cattle don’t have hides as strong and […]
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The “Geek Gestlat” blog on the Cnet News site features this bit on the physics of baseball, courtesy of Paul Doherty of the Exploratorium, the San Francisco-based “museum of science, art and human perception.” Doherty talks about — and demonstrates through videos — the flight of pitched balls and the “impact” bats have on them, […]
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There’s a lot of material that’s fallen by the wayside as I try to keep this blog fresh with the latest in baseball book publishing information. But in the words of the revered philosopher, Regis Philbin, “I’m only one man!” So I’m using this space to try to catch up. Some of the items might […]
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With the dawn of the season, news coverage is picking up substantially. Several topics constitute the bulk of the early buzz: The final season of Yankee and Shea Stadiums. There are several new and revised titles about The House That Ruth Built; there are none, as of this moment, specifically about Shea. Go figure. Anniversaries […]
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If one doesn’t expect to see the name Lenny Dykstra in the same sentence as New Yorker magazine, it’s probably a similar sentiment that one would seek him out for investment tips. Au contraire, according to this piece on MoneyCNN.com.
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From “My Grandma’s of New England“ Pure Dark chocolate morsels are sprinkled, along with fresh walnuts, throughout the middle and atop this already luscious rich and moist chocolate batter. This cake was tasted by Hall of Famer Ted Williams, the greatest hitter in the history of baseball, and deemed worthy enough to be named “The […]
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From umpbump.com: Baseball book club alert: Manny Ramirez has been reading (and even underlining passages of) The Secret, the best-selling New Age book by Rhonda Byrnes (via The Joy of Sox) as part of the left fielder’s new, Mannytating lifestyle. And according to Call of the Green Monster, Jonathan Papelbon picked up To Kill A […]
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From Men’s Vogue, this review of Ballet in the Dirt, the pricey photography book by Neil Leifer. Another Leifer feature appeared in the Los Angeles Times. The Washington Post ran this review on the new biography on Bernard Malamud, author of The Natural, generally considered the first “adult” baseball fiction. Itsaboutthemoney, a blog “celebrating the […]
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but did anyone notice that the co-author of Game of Shadows, the book that blew the cover off of Barry Bonds and the whole steroids scandal, is named Mark Fainaru-Wada. That’s WADA, as in World Anti-Doping Agency. Coincidence? Or destiny? Hmmm.
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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
* Why baseball matters
April 9, 2008
This piece from whom I assume is a student at Indiana State University about a recent experience at a conference on baseball literature. Upshot: Because I never saw Mantle run out an infield single, witnessed the smooth stroke of Stan Musial or was ever awed by Brooks Robinson stabbing down a frozen rope on the […]
Tagged as: baseball literaure
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