Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
With the days dwindling down to a precious few for Yankee Stadium, the author of Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig contributed this touching tribute to the Iron Horse to the Fox Sports Web site. Eig writes: At the end of this baseball season, we will say goodbye to Yankee Stadium. My […]
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One day I’ll do some research to see how many baseball players had essays printed on the Op-Ed pages of The New York Times. This one is by Doug Glanville, who played in the Bigs from 1996-2004, on what it’s like to be a September call-up.
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In this Allen Barra piece that appears in today’s Wall Street Journal, Rob Neyer wodners why the sue of instant rplay should be limited to home run calls? [The] author of “The Big Book of Baseball Blunders,” asks: “Why can’t umpires use replay in calling safe or out? Official scorers already use it to decide […]
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Tom Stanton, author of several Tigers-centric titles, contributed this piece to the New York Daily News about why baseball is losing its young, middle-class fan base. Upshot: For most of my life, on a trip to the ballpark on any given day, you might find yourself sitting between a corporate executive and a line worker, […]
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The Capital region writer for the Albany Times-Union weighs in on the meaning of the national pastime.
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Damn right! An outraged reader in Eureka, Calif. sounds off on the National Pastime. You can read the original offending article here. The newspaper offers the disclaimer “Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of The Eureka Reporter or its staff.” But it was written by a staff reporter so so much for trying to […]
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Cynthia Crossen wrote this awkward analysis of Malamud’s classic for a couple of weeks ago, trying to put it in a modern context. Guess what? You can’t. The piece is subtitled, “The Hero of Malamud’s ‘The Natural’ Wouldn’t Make [sic] With Today’s Pros.” Some time ago, I interviewed the sons of the late Mark Harris […]
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This “conspiracy theory” article comes from The Nation. And I don’t mean that as a negative. Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not trying to get you. Many other respected sources believe Miller has been “punished” with exclusion for his role in increasing expenditures on the part of the owners. According to writers Peter […]
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The LA Times’ columnist Bill Dwyre dredges up a waterhsed moment in baseball: the undoing of Al Campanis before a national audience. Campanis, Dodgers’ vice president and director of player personnel at the time, was a guest on the program along with Roger Kahn, author of the Classic The Boys of Summer. to mark the […]
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Tom Shroder of The Washington Post contributed this sweet, nostalgic piece about discoerving a long-forgotten piece of his childhood. As I lectured my mom on this subject recently, arguing for ruthlessness in the disposition of boxes filled with old stuff, I came across a little cardboard notebook. Labeled “Official Baseball Score Book,” it opened to […]
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One of my new favorite writers is Dave Zirin, who makes sports into something more than box scores and trade rumors. In this article, on politicalaffairs.net, discusses the shameful lack of diversity in the recent Home Run Derby. Seems, odd, especially since, as Zirin mentions, more than 40 percent of MLBers are foreign-born.
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Buzz Bissinger is no fan of blogs. So by extension, he might not have much empathy for will Leitch and Deadspin. Here’s a snippet of Bissinger vs. Leitch on an episode of Bob Costas’ HBO program: (The whole piece can be seen on the Deadspin site.) Surprisingly, Bissinger granted an interview with his adversary, as […]
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This interesting piece from InsideHighered.com on how Bull Durham serves as a metaphor for the academic world. My classes have come to a close for another year while professional baseball is finding its summer stride. I have come to see that my classes over the span of a semester are a lot like a baseball […]
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In the current issue of ESPN The Magazine, Rick Reilly writes about a high school pitcher who deliberately threw at a home plate umpire, instructing his catcher to let the ball go on through. You can read that piece here. The scenario is eerily reminiscent of a scene from Philip Roth’s The Great American Novel […]
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One of my favorite blogs is Freakonomics by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt on The New York Times‘ Web site. So imagine my glee when I found several baseball-related items, treated with the hosts’ usual thought-provoking and humorous style: Since the beginning of 2008, the columns include: Baseball Writers Are A Rare Breed: […]
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According to this op-ed piece in the May 25 New York Times, in which the writer claims booing the home town team is among the most traitorous of behaviors imaginable.
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Not a review of the former big leaguer’s new autobiography, per se, but a testimony to the man by Tom Shanahan of the Voice of San Diego.
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This piece from the Christian Science Monitor continues the theme put forth by Rob Neyer’s Big Book of Baseball Legends. (So is this going to forever plague the reader when it comes to the autobio/memoir genre?)
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Michael Rowe wrote this analysis of modern sportswriting on the Utne Reader Web site. He laments the art of the craft, as was evidenced by such wordsmiths as Ring Lardner, Huey Fullerton, and, more recently, the likes of Roger Angell. “Does sportswriting suck,” he asks, bemoaning the lack of reporting “that tackles an actual ethical […]
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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
* Define "dynasty"
September 24, 2008
The Red Sox won their game last night against the Indians, bringing an end to the Yankees’ string, which reaches back to 1995. Some would say that any sports season is a failure if you don’t come away with a championship. Others disagree, believing it’s all relative (just ask any franchise that’s been mired in […]
Tagged as: New York Yankees
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