Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
One of the benefits for a bibliophile of being a member of the Society for American baseball Research is all the cool publications that are a part of the package. The two primary annual titles are the Baseball Research Journal, which tends to be more numbers-driven, and The National Pastime, which offers a wide range […]
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Robinson was born this date in 1919, which means he would have been 93 today. Sadly, he passed away almost 40 years ago, way too young. It isn’t necessary to repeat all the sacrifices he made, all the doors he opened. One would hope everyone in this country — baseball fan or not — would […]
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The nominations for the Academy Awards were announced this morning and Moneyball came away with a “cycle” of sorts. The unlikely cinematic version of Michael Lewis’ best-seller is up for Best Picture, Best Actor (Brad Pitt), Best Supporting Actor (Jonah Hill), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin, and Stan Chervin). UPDATE: Moneyball also […]
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Creamer, author of what many believe to be the first “adult” biography when he published Babe: The Legend Comes to Life, was the subject of this interview with the Baseball: Past and Present blog, an interesting site of which I had heretofore been ignorant. Creamer, a fixture at Sports Illustrated and other publications, is also […]
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Small wonder in that they had to do with Jackie Robinson. Robinson’s teammate, Don Newcombe, recalled ameeting between the two iconic figures for a piece in Time Magazine in 2007: Do you know what Jackie’s impact was? Well, let Martin Luther King tell you. In 1968, Martin had dinner in my house with my family. […]
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A few weeks back I posted an entry about Diane Firstman’s imaginative baseball rendition of The 12 Days of Christmas on her Value Over Replacement Grit blog. Well, she’s at it again, this time deconstructing the classic poem “Casey at the Bat” to see how many times the scenario — home team down 4-2 with […]
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W. P. Kinsella was awarded the 2011 Jack Graney Award, presented by the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame for a “significant contribution to the game of baseball in Canada through a life’s work or for a singular outstanding achievement.” The award is named for one of the first Canadian baseball players to enjoy success in the […]
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In this piece from Slate.com, author (right) and subject (left) discuss what the neo-classic mix of sports and business hath wrought.
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Before he began working with an actual publisher, James used to type out The Baseball Analyst on a bi-monthly basis and make copies as needed for distribution. How times have changed. Like SABR’s annual publications, The National Pastime and Baseball Research Journal, the Analysts were contributor-driven. The first issue contains articles such as “Ballpark Effects […]
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by Jimmy Piersall with Al Hirshberg. Atlantic Monthly Press/Little, Brown and Company, 1955. Jimmy Piersall was a two-time All-Star who sent 17 seasons in the Majors…and one summer in a mental institution. That’s the crux of this underrated autobiography from the mid-50s, well ahead of its time in discussing the issue of mental illness. Piersall’s […]
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Okay, this time I mean it. These will be the last links to some interesting pieces about the new film. From Forbes, “Can Brad Pitt Pitch ‘Moneyball’ to Box Office Glory?” From Entertainment Weekly‘s “Inside Movies” column, “‘Moneyball’: How audiences fell back in love with screenwriting.” From Pop Matters, “Moneyball: By The Numbers” From The […]
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I’m not going to dwell on this much more. This being the day of the release, the dailies have issued their critiques. The New York Times made it one of their “Critics Picks.” (Here’s a sneak peak of a profile on Billy Beane slated to run in this Sunday’s NYT Magazine. The New York Daily […]
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Fascinating piece by Andy Martino in the NY Daily News about how the subjects are portrayed in the book and movie. Kind of like listening to yourself on a tape recorder and asking, “Do I really sound like that?” There have been several articles noting the differences between the real Paul DePodesta and the interpretation […]
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With the movie set to premiere this week, look for articles like these from various baseball/sabermetric/other sites re-examining the book to see if the principles are still valid. “Where does Moneyball stand now?” from BeyondtheBoxscore “For the Love of Moneyball: The Failure of Sabermetrics In the Absence of Necessary Resources,” from AthleticsNation “Your Field Guide To […]
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With the movie about to make its debut this week, look for an increase in sales (especially if they put Brad Pitt on the cover of a new edition). I’m sorry to miss the premiere tomorrow (the newspaper goes to press on Tuesdays), but I hope to catch it on Friday (looking forward to see […]
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As I continue to do research for my own project, I get a kick when I find some old material that confirms I’m on the right track with some of my selections. Hey, it’s nice to find validation rom time to time, right? So today’s blast from the past is this brief appearance by the […]
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While doing research for my project, I came across this list, published in 2002, of the 100 top sports books of all time as chosen by the editors of Sports Illustrated. Of those 100, “only” 32 were about baseball. The nerve. Anyway, here’s the SI piece, trimmed to just baseball titles, with commentary from the […]
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Dickson, author of several outstanding books on the game, not the least of which is his eponymous Baseball Dictionary, was recently honored at an event sponsored by the Baseball Reliquary. While Robert Alomar, Bert Blyleven, and Pat Gillick were in Cooperstown last weekend, the Reliquary was having an “induction day” of its own in southern […]
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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
Spring cleaning, er, reading
March 7, 2012 · 2 comments
When my wife gave me a kindle for the Hanukka, it was with the understanding that I would bring fewer books into the house. Yeah, that’s not working out too well right about now, as new baseball titles just keep coming. I have been asking for them in Kindle format whenever possible, but it’s not […]
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