Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Lou Gehrig. Jackie Robinson. Two of the game’s most iconic players, celebrated for their courage under extreme conditions. Both the subjects of outstanding biographies by Jonathan Eig, and both of which appear in 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die Eig has worked as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, Chicago magazine, […]
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While looking through the NY Times Sunday book section, I found this essay, “Which Books From Your Past Do You Read Now With Ambivalence?” To be honest, I didn’t read it. Who has time? But it does raise an interesting question which I put to you, but regarding baseball titles. Some people have gone back […]
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The top-ten baseball books as per Amazon.com. Caveat 1: Print editions only (at least for now); I’m old fashioned that way. Caveat 2: Since the rankings are updated every hour, these lists might not longer be 100 percent accurate by the time you read it. But it’ll be close enough for government work. Caveat 3: […]
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His name might not be as familiar as David Halberstam or Roger Angell or Lawrence Ritter, but in the baseball book world, Hollander was an annual companion. He produced a staple of fans’ libraries From the obituary in today’s New York Times: a journeyman journalist who rebounded from the merger of his newspaper in the […]
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The top-ten baseball books as per Amazon.com. Caveat 1: Print editions only (at least for now); I’m old fashioned that way. Caveat 2: Since the rankings are updated every hour, these lists might not longer be 100 percent accurate by the time you read it. But it’ll be close enough for government work. Caveat 3: […]
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Yesterday, I posted a question to the Baseball Books group on Facebook. If you could have dinner with any four authors who have written about baseball — not strictly baseball authors — at the same table, who would they be? My choices: Roger Angell, David Halberstam, Lawrence Ritter, and Bernard Malamud. Of course, four is […]
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To be a bit harsh, most of the free baseball books I’ve come across for the Kindle are pretty, well, poor. But as of this writing, baseball historian Lee Allen‘s 1950 100 Years of Baseball is available for free.
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The 93-year-old Roger Angell, the contemporary “dean of baseball writers,” — at least in my opinion — recently published this bittersweet tale of aging in The New Yorker. Not a lot of baseball at all, but still deserving of your attention.
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Unlike the celebrities in this NY Times story, like Bob Uecker, famously does not sit in the front row. And to drive that point home, the Milwaukee Brewers will honor their long-time broadcaster with a statute in the last row at their home Miller Park. Uecker was the “star” of a number of Miller Lite […]
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Kids, ask your parents/grandparents.) Our good friend Howard Megdal posted these suggestions on”How to survive without baseball.” Among them: Simulated baseball games, such as Baseball Mogul, Diamond Mind Baseball, Out of the Park Baseball, and, of course, Strat-O-Matic. I would add What-If Sports to this list. They allow you to construct a roster of any […]
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UPDATE: It seems only fitting that The New Yorker post a piece of appreciation, and here it is, with”as a holiday bonus…a kind of mini-anthology, a taste of the best of a marvellous writer and man.” * * * The “dean” of baseball writing was named recipient of the Baseball Hall of Fame’s J.G. Taylor […]
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The baseball lifer — player, broadcaster, raconteur, game show host, and author — was named recipient of the Hall of Fame’s Buck O’Neil Award in recognition of his “extraordinary efforts to enhance baseball’s positive impact on society. ” From the Hall of Fame press release: The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s Board of […]
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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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The entry on Christy Mathewson’s Pitching in a Pinch was quite popular so I thought I’d add some more info as provided by Mark Aubrey. You can read it online or download a copy in several formats (including for the Kindle) from Archive.org. Those interesting in hearing the book have a couple of options. You […]
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The New Yorker posted this interesting piece on “Christy Mathewson and the Thinking Man’s Game” (although in the body of the article, it does refer to the more PC “thinking person”). The article by Luke Epplin refers to several books, including Mathewson’s “memoir,” Pitching in a Pinch: Baseball from the Inside — recently re-released by […]
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Can’t figure out the maze of links for this one. The Campaign for the American Reader posted this item posted by Marshal Zeringue on “Five top works of baseball fiction,” according to Leigh Montville, the author of two wonderful biographies on Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. The initial offering is The Brothers K by David James […]
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One person’s opinion on “A few baseball books to extend the season.” Really? That’s all you could come up with? IMHO, one of the nice things about 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die — which includes entries about the three titles in the aforementioned piece — is that it lets you, the […]
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I just love those radio commercials that implore listeners to either call within the next few minutes to take advantage of an extra special promotion (even though the spots run all day), or to be caller number xx. Like they won’t take your money if you’re late. Actually, I always thought of these things 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
Baseball best-sellers, April 25
April 25, 2014
The top-ten baseball books as per Amazon.com. Caveat 1: Print editions only (at least for now); I’m old fashioned that way. Caveat 2: Since the rankings are updated every hour, these lists might not longer be 100 percent accurate by the time you read it. But it’ll be close enough for government work. Caveat 3: […]
Tagged as: Ball Four, baseball rules, Chicago Cubs, George Will, Jim Bouton, John Feinstein, Jonah Keri, Kostya Kennedy, Montreal Expos, Nolan Ryan, Pete Rose, Ted Williams, Wrigley Field
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