Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
NOTE: I have been posting these things long enough now that a few have commented that the introductory section isn’t necessary anymore. But I’m leaving it in because, to paraphrase Joe DiMaggio when asked why he played so hard all the time, there may be people who’ve never read the best-seller entries before. So on […]
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Here’s a sample of a regular card from the 2016 Topps series: It’s all right, but I start thinking about television commercials and how much is “enhanced” by computers. You can throw in all the bells and whistles you want, but it doesn’t necessarily make for a superior product. Now here’s one from their 2016 […]
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Early baseball star Lipman Emanuel “Lip” Pike is the subject of the 2016 annual brass medal from the American Israel Numismatic Association. The Prooflike medal measures 32 millimeters in diameter and has a mintage limit of 500 pieces. The pieces were struck at the Highland Mint. All AINA members receive an example of the medal […]
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Since I posted the first of these on a Thursday, which is known on social media as a time of reflection, I thought to make it a regular thing under this rubric. These are kind of fun; it’s like a box of chocolates — you never know what you’re gonna get. (Actually, I never understood […]
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Get ready, get set, go… This is the time of year when publishers gear up for their quickie season recaps for teams in the hunt for the World Series crown. But it seems that in recent years, you don’t even have to get that far. Maybe the League Championship series are good enough. Or perhaps […]
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Funny how things work out. If I had parked in my usual spot at the library on Saturday, I would have missed a yard sale where I picked up this: This plastic Ruth figurine was part of a larger collection, but he seemed to be in the best shape. Many were missing bats or were […]
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Evidently this book, according to John Thorn. In a recent column, the official historian for Major League Baseball offers what will undoubtedly be an introduction to most baseball lit fans of “The Krank — Baseball’s Rarest Book.” “The Krank: His Language and What It Means is a humorous glossary of baseball terms,” writes Thorn, referring to […]
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Another example of the “anything to separate the fans from their money” philosophy.
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Or his daughters’, as he claims. “Ballhawk” Zack Hample has agreed to give the 3,000-hit ball to the Yankees’ DH. In the case of two wrongs not making a right, I was always in Rodriguez’s corner when it came to being paid for achieving milestones. No one held a gun to the Yankees when they […]
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I’ve often wondered about the people who negotiate to retrieve home run balls for the players, so thank you, Billy Witz of the New York Times, for this fascinating piece about Yankees security guard/”collector” Eddie Fastook. How much leeway do you think Fastook has when negotiating for the piece of treasure? And if he considers […]
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I love collecting first editions of magazines, so it was a nice surprise when I received this on Saturday, totally out of the blue Very snazzy. The new offering from the Helmar Brewing Company considers what publisher Charles Mandel calls “modern vintage” cards, although there’s lots of non-collectible features, too. Mike Shannon, editor-in-chief of the […]
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Who doesn’t like pretty things? Museums, such as the Baseball Hall of Fame, are filled with them. But not everyone can get up to Cooperstown. For them, there are books like A History of Baseball in 100 Objects, by Josh Leventhal. Leventhal — whose previous books on baseball include The World Series: An Illustrated Encyclopedia […]
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I still have a few of these hanging around the house. MLB has decided to eliminate the paper ballots available at ballparks (and retail outlets? Have they still been doing that over the past few years?) and have fans vote for their favorite All Stars via electronic devices. Perhaps they were worried about hanging chads? […]
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In addition to the thousands upon thousands of baseball cards, Bob had a handful of baseball publications, most of them pertaining to fantasy baseball with a few Bill James Abstracts thrown in. This caught my I so I asked for it. More than any other issues, I think I enjoyed the March edition of Baseball […]
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Ain’t Facebook wonderful? It gives one the chance to find so many interesting people. One of the things that never ceases to amaze me is the number of current and former athletes who are social networking and how “just plain folks” they are. Case in point, Ellis Valentine. Just like the rest of us, he […]
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You ever have one of the experiences where a picture falls off a wall for no reason? Then you find out later that the person in the photo has had an accident or worse? This just happened as I was working on blog posts: The mini-bobblehead of Alex Rodriguez, then a member of the Texas […]
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And the wrap-up… * denotes items of particular interest (to me, at any rate). Odds and Ends ** It will be interesting to see how The Hidden Game of Baseball: A Revolutionary Approach to Baseball and Its Statistics has held up since it was first published 30 years ago. Authors John Thorn and Pete Palmer […]
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is available on Amazon.com,
In my most recent "day job," I was the sports and features editor for a weekly New Jersey newspaper, where I hosted another blog. Busy, busy, busy.
I did a profile piece on the award-winning cartoonist Arnold Roth and he was nice enough to "immortalize" me.
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
Because you could put A-Rod’s 661st home run on your bookshelf
February 26, 2015
Because, let’s face it, its worth will be questionable. One of the things I loved about the old Street & Smith baseball annuals was the list of upcoming milestones that were within reach for current ballplayers. You could see, for example, that this guy was 22 home runs away from 500, or that guy was […]
Tagged as: Alex Rodriguez, baseball records, baseball statistics, New York Yankees, PED
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