Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Another in an attempt to look over the over-looked news in baseball books. I’ve only just begun listening to the unabridged audio book of Bill Bryson’s newest, One Summer: America, 1927, but if Richard “Pete” Peterson says it’s “a good read for Cards, Cubs fans,” that’s good enough for me. Kevin Baker, who worked with […]
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Regardless of your opinion of Tim McCarver, endings are almost always sad. Last night’s World Series finale was the swan song of his broadcasting career. I especially appreciate McCarver’s comment that his goals as a broadcaster included “teaching you something you may not have known about this great game.” He’s done that on the air […]
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Baseball’s Methuselah appeared on Fresh Air, interviewed by Dave Davies, to discuss his long and storied career and new book, Just Tell Me I Can’t: How Jamie Moyer Defied the Radar Gun and Defeated Time You can read the story and listen to the segment here. UPDATE: I had not yet listened to the segment […]
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Lest we forget: 1950 – Kiki Cuyler, outfielder; All-Star, Hall of Famer (b. 1898) Hazen “Kiki” Cuyler: A Baseball Biography, by Ronald Waldo, McFarland 2012. 2011 – Chuck Tanner, outfielder, manager (b. 1928) Chuck Tanner’s baseball playbook, by Tanner with Jim Enright, Rutledge/Mayflower Book, 1981 Also on this date: 1985 – Minnesota Twins first baseman […]
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One of the good things about having a Kindle or Nook is the ability to read sample of a book before buying. Makes sense; if you were at a bookstore, you’d probably leaf through at least a few pages (although I once read an entire book over the course of a few lunch hours. That’s […]
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So, back to bidness. ♦ The Hardball Times reviewed Great Hitting Pitchers, published by the Society for American Baseball Research. ♦ Baseball Reflections posted this on Major League Dads: Baseball’s Best Players Reflect on the Fathers Who Inspired Them to Love the Game. ♦ I don’t know if this really counts as a review, but […]
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My annual spring baseball book roundup appears on Bookreporter.com. Titles include: Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball, by R.A. Dickey and Wayne Coffey Turning Two: My Journey to the Top of the World and Back with the New York Mets, by Bud Harrelson and Phil Pepe Driving Mr. […]
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♦ The Knoxville News published this review of native son R.A. Dickley’s Wherever I Wind Up. Upshot: “t is rare to find a baseball book by an insider that dishes no dirt. It is even rarer to find a professional athlete willing to acknowledge his own mistakes. In “Wherever I Wind Up,” R.A. Dickey reveals […]
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♦ Bill Jordan at Baseball Reflections on Tim Wendel’s Summer of 68. ♦ Tom Hoffarth kicked off his annual “30 book in 30 days” feature yesterday with Baseball Prospectus 2012. Today’s book is Trading Manny: How a Father & Son Learned to Love Baseball Again, by Jim Gullo. (Here’s another review from The Oregonian.) ♦ Sticking […]
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Actually, apologies to the office manager, who had to schlep these books to my desk. Four titles from the University of Nebraska Press arrived today (full disclosure: UNP will be publishing my 501 book next year). In order of interest to me (with all due respect to the authors and which probably means the order […]
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Because you always need to have a career plan. R.A. Dickey, he of Mt. Kilimanjaro fame, will publish Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball (with Wayne Coffey) in March via Blue Rider Press, a Penguin imprint. You can get samples of Dickey’s writing (about his recent adventures) from […]
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Happy New Year, everybody! One of the “resolutions” I’m making this year is to challenge myself more. This mans doing things outside my comfort zone and pushing a bit more. This will include a return to the Podcast edition on a regular basis” and more “intellectual” pursuits than I might have considered in the past. […]
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The Yankee closer nonpareil became the all-time saves leader when he sealed yesterday’s 3-0 win against the Twins. In his honor, a few appropriate titles for your consideration: Bullpen Diaries: Mariano Rivera, Bronx Dreams, Pinstripe Legends, and the Future of the New York Yankees Heroes of the Bullpen: Baseball’s Greatest Relief Pitchers Pen Men: Baseball’s […]
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The good news: More than half way to the goal of 501 books. The bad news: it takes me away from the blog. Oh well, hang around. It will be worth it in the end. In the meantime, here are a few items for your consideration: Out of Left Field, Rebecca Alpert’s history of Jewish […]
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Juan Marichal, Warren Spahn, and the Pitching Duel of the Century, by Jim Kaplan. Triumph Books, 2011. Note: This review appears on Bookreporter.com. These days, a manager is thrilled if he can get a “quality start” out of a pitcher: six innings with no more than three earned runs. Gone are the days of 25 […]
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The semi-regular roundup of things I neglected to post previously. From DriveLineBaseball, this review of The Physics of Pitching: Learn the Mechanics, Science, and Psychology of Pitching to Success. Upshot: It “falls well short of [Robert K.} Adair’s classic text [The Physics of Baseball]. Sure, it looks a lot cooler (the photography is top notch), […]
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A middling relief pitcher for the Braves and a couple of other teams in the 1970s, Tom House‘s biggest claim to fame was catching Hank Aaron’s 715th home run in the bullpen. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. Since then he’s earned a reputation (not to mention a PhD) as […]
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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
February 10, 2012 · 2 comments
Haven’t done one of these in awhile, but I have a bit of backlog I’d like to clear, so here goes. * We’ll have to agree to disagree. One card collector can’t stand the new 2012 Topps series. Another calls it the best one yet. What do you think? * LibraryJournal.com posted this piece reviewing […]
Tagged as: Casey Award, Dirk Hayhurst, Hank Greenberg, Jim Brosnan, Joe DiMaggio, Michael Lewis, The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran, Year The Yankees Lost the Pennant
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