Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
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 […]
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If you’ve been following the blog for at least a couple of years, you know I take great pleasure around this time because this is when the baseball magazines hit the stores. But like any person my age, I think things were better “back in the day.” Thanks to 24/7 spots media, the idea of […]
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The Baseball Bookshelf was recently designated as one of the top 100 Baseball Blogs by Feedspot.com. Woo-hoo. Here’s the “official notification”: Hi Ron, My name is Anuj Agarwal. I’m Founder of Feedspot. I would like to personally congratulate you as your blog Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf has been selected by our panelist as one of […]
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♦ As you know, I normally do not include books written for kids on this blog, but in this case — The William Hoy Story: How a Deaf Baseball Player Changed the Game — I’ve made an exception because of the special “teaching moment” involved and the fact that, unlike a lot of other titles […]
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Busy, busy, busy. That’s the only way to describe George Castle. The Chicago-based author of some 13 baseball-themed books for adult as well as younger readers, Castle recently released one of the most fun books I’ve come across in awhile: Baseball’s Game Changers: Icons, Record Breakers, Scandals, Sensational Series, and More. But there’s another one […]
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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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I miss you guys. It’s just been so darned busy around here lately that I haven’t had time to write. The final edits of my new book are due on Friday. I also have to work on a two-minute pitch for the Jewish Book Council which will hopefully generate interest for author appearances at JCCs, […]
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Okay, it’s not actually advertising, but The Player’s Tribune, an on-line “magazine’ founded by the recently-retired Derek Jeter, has come under some scrutiny lately. TPT purports to “publish first-person stories directly from the athletes” (emphasis added). Maybe there’s a difference of opinion on the definition of “directly.” Richard Sandomir, the New York Times’ sports media […]
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Bob, a distant relative of my wife, passed away recently. He lived in Hoboken with his wife, who died several years ago. I didn’t know him well. He was a very quiet fellow who kept to himself during the biennial family reunions. I can’t even recall his last name on my own. It turns out […]
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Bruce Nash, co-author of the Baseball Hall of Shamebook series, contributed this piece to the Huffington Post. While I agree with most of his issues, I would add a few items, including: The music that many teams feel they have to constantly blast, lest the fans enjoy a quiet moment. The inability to purchase a […]
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Note: Just like Chuck Lorre’s “vanity cards” at the end of The Big Bang Theory, you should read these list stories to their conclusion; the end is always changing, even though the theme is basically the same, finishing up with a self-promotional message. On with the show… Here are the top ten baseball books as […]
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Note: Just like Chuck Lorre’s “vanity cards” at the end of The Big Bang Theory, you should read these list stories to their conclusion; the end is always changing, even though the theme is basically the same, finishing up with a self-promotional message. On with the show… Here are the top ten baseball books as […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Note: Just like Chuck Lorre’s “vanity cards” at the end of The Big Bang Theory, you should read these list stories to their conclusion; the end is always changing, even though the theme is basically the same, finishing up with a self-promotional message. On with the show… Here are the top ten baseball books as […]
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The author of this Huffington Post piece makes a compelling argument. Most latter-day fans of Kahn know him from his nostalgic look at The Boys of Summer, which — hard to believe — was published more than 40 years ago. But he was also a beat writer for those Brooklyn Dodgers, as well as a […]
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A Fan’s Notes from Left Field, by Josh Ostergaard. Coffee House Press, 2014. (Not to be confused with Confessions from Left Field: A Baseball Pilgrimage, published by Raymond Mungo in 1983.) To be honest, I did not have high expectations for this one after reading the review in the NY Times‘ Sunday book supplement a […]
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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, November 13, 2025
November 13, 2025
♦ You don’t hear that much about this topic, but here’s a piece from the Washington Post on “The 10 best sports theme songs of all time — and what makes them great.” It’s kind of interesting to see/hear all the football tunes in one handy spot to compare. Not surprisingly, there’s only one baseball […]
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