Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Catching up of some entries that were in my “draft” box. My initial response to beginning this eight-part series on Netflix was, this is kind of boring. And these guys curse a lot. But on further review, there’s a lot to recommend this in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at one of the game’s most storied franchises. Tops […]
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♦ Depending on when you read this, and where you live, your can still take advantage of this: On Monday, October 6, at 5 pm, the New York State Museum in Albany will present John Thorn, the Official Historian of Major League Baseball, for a special evening presentation on baseball’s deep connection with New York […]
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See below for an update. A post on Facebook reminded me that Moe Berg, one of the most interesting characters to ever don spikes, died on this date in 1972. The number of languages Berg could speak varied. Casey Stengel once supposedly, “He can speak seven languages but can’t hit in any of ’em.” […]
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Pete Peterson’s national public radio program, Reading Baseball, just celebrated its 400th episode! Mazel tov. Pittsburgh pitcher Paul Skenes is included in Esquire’s “Mavericks of Sports 2025” feature. Skenes is also featured in today’s New York Times Magazine piece, “How Analytics Marginalized Baseball’s Superstar Pitchers: Why has pro baseball made it so hard for today’s […]
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Lenny Randle, perhaps best known on the field for trying to blow a baseball into foul territory, passed away last week at the age of 75. (He was also notorious for punching out Texas manager Frank Lucchesi in 1974.) Randle, who played just about ever position except for pitcher and catcher, made his debut with […]
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Anniversaries are great topics for books and documentaries. This year marked the 20th for the first World Series championship for the Boston Red Sox in generations. Ever since Ken Burns released the iconic Baseball miniseries, fans have endured the same old same old: interviews with talking heads interspersed with still photos and video clips. So […]
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The things one finds wandering down the rabbit hole. I was doing some research and just happened to come across the new film, Fielding Dreams: A Celebration of Baseball Scouts. It’s a fascinating look at an under-reported part of the game. The first thing I thought of was the scene in Moneyball in which Billy […]
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♦ The Baseball Hall of Fame will hold a screening of Fielding Dreams: A Celebration of Baseball Scouts on Thursday, Jan. 18. “[T]his new documentary goes beyond moneyball [sic] and features dozens of interviews with some of the scouting legends of the game, including 5 scouts who helped build the 2023 World Series Champion Texas […]
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♦ It’s been a very long time since I wrote about the Baseball Project, “a supergroup that includes several former members of R.E.M. and makes music exclusively about the sport,” according to this new article from The New Yorker. ♦ Hot on the heels of the new Netflx documentary The Saint of Second Chances this […]
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A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes. (See my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks.”) In addition, occasionally […]
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A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes. (See my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks.”) In addition, occasionally […]
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♦ Several baseball titles are mentioned in this list of 2022 sports books — most with a local angle — posted by Cleveland.com including Stolen Dreams: The 1955 Cannon Street All-Stars and Little League Baseball’s Civil War, by Chris Lamb Covey: A Stone’s Throw from a Coal Mine to the Hall of Fame, by Harry […]
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♦ The Bradenton Times covers Baseball Memories & Dreams, a “best of” compilation of the Hall of Fame’s magazine for members, in this review. ♦ CBR.com deems that “‘The Simpsons’ “Homer at the Bat” is the Definitive Baseball Episode,” further stating that “The classic Simpsons episode in which Mr. Burns replaces his softball team with […]
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Did you know that Willie Mays “outed over 7,000 opponents while playing center field”? I didn’t realize there were that many gay players. Seriously, the writer of this piece on Collider.com about the forthcoming HBO documentary, Say Hey, Willie Mays! has some work to do. Other than this very specific usage, I have never seen “out” […]
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One of the things — great or not — about the Internet is the lack of limits on space (for the most part). When writing for a newspapers or magazine (less so in books), you have to be aware of the limited “geography.” That is, there is only so much room available for the story, […]
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♦ From Sports Collectors Daily: “Mickey Mantle: A Life In Memorabilia acts as a museum tour through Mantle’s life. It includes items from Lane’s extensive and valuable collection as well as stories from Mantle’s 18-year career. “‘This book is as close as one can get to these artifacts without actually holding them,’ [author Steven] Lane […]
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This four-hour love-fest is a bittersweet reminder of what was but also what could have been. As a life-long Mets fan, I joined millions in suffering through the decade-long, post-Miracle Mets and celebrating when they won their second “Amazin’” championship. As the 1970s turned into the 1980s, the vibe changed from more mellow to more […]
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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
