Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
♦ Depending on when you read this, and where you live, your can still take advantage of this: On Monday, October 6, at 5 pm, the New York State Museum in Albany will present John Thorn, the Official Historian of Major League Baseball, for a special evening presentation on baseball’s deep connection with New York […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“). In addition, occasionally […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“). In addition, occasionally […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“). In addition, occasionally […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Sports Collectors Digest ran a series on the artists who drew on the cartoons on the backs of Topps cards back in the day. Fun stuff. Part one here. Part two here. FWIW, I was able to read this review of Jane Levy’s New Make Me Commissioner in The Wall Street Journal, but that doesn’t […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
It’s a daunting task, following in the footsteps of a legend. The players who came after Mickey Mantle or Ted Williams or Willie Mays didn’t have it easy. They were faulted for not being able to replicate the feats of their predecessors. How unfair. I was thinking about that when I came across this piece in […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Certainly the debut of Jen Powal, MLB’s first female to umpire in a regular season game, will warrant a book of some sort, be it a bio of her or female umps in general or women in baseball. Here’s just one article on the event, which took place yesterday in the first game of the […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“). In addition, occasionally […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
♦ Adding to the previous B&P item about gathering Hall of Fame induction speeches: you would expect writers to be more comfortable with the process than the players. Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell was the 2025 winner of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America’s Career Excellence Award. Here is his acceptance speech. Side note: According […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
A thought occurred to me as I was posting about the passing of Ryne Sandberg. Although I still subscribe to the physical edition of The New York Times, I also have the app which sometimes will publish several days ahead of the print version. I have frequently found that an obituary not not appear for […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“). In addition, occasionally […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
When I was a kid, the legends of the game included the likes of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and other players from the game in the post-Black Sox era (i.e., during and after the Roaring Twenties). But needles to say there were superstars before then, many of whom today’s fans have never heard. (As an […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“). In addition, occasionally […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“). In addition, occasionally […]
{ 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
Bookshelf Review: Make Me Commissioner
September 27, 2025
Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It, by Jane Leavy Jane Leavy is one of my favorite authors. In addition to her wonderful writing, she’s a fun interview and will shortly join my humble version of Saturday Night Live‘s five-time hosting club with her next appearance on The […]
Tagged as: Jane Leavy
{ Comments on this entry are closed }