Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Dec. 22 marked the 70 anniversary of an advertisement than ran in The New York Times and several other newspapers calling on men and women of German ancestry to join in a campaign denouncing the Nazi regime. The advertisement, which was sponsored by the World Jewish Congress, began At this season in which we celebrate […]
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♦ The Atlantic published this piece by Luke Epplin on Tony La Russa’s new book, The Last Strike. The main complaint in the piece seems to be that a) La Russa doesn’t dish the dirt very much; and b) his role as a great strategist may be well-deserved, but too much detail doesn’t make for […]
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One of the things I’ve come across during my research is that so many readers and writers take this stuff so seriously. As Crash Davis said in Bull Durham, “This game is fun, okay?” But who says you can both have fun and pay proper respect to those who have made the national pastime so enjoyable? […]
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“Dial”: the means by which previous generations selected their TV and/or radio programs. Precedes “remote control” and buttons. For your viewing pleasure, now and in the future: * You have to wonder whether teams may regret allowing TV entities to shadow them for a season. It’s almost like the Sports Illustrated cover curse. This time, […]
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I’ve been informed that Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story will be aired on Long Island’s WLIW tonight at 10 p.m. Particularly appropriate in light of the story about the “Judaism & Baseball Retreat” I just posted, since several of the presenters — including Rabbis Rebecca Alpert and Michael Paley, Martin Abramowitz, and Ira […]
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The documentary about a young man trying to donate sports equipment to Cuba — the country that gave his grandfather’s family refuge during the Holocaust — made its Kickstarter goal of$40,000 in time.
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A few weeks ago I did this story about Got Balz, a feature documentary about a bar mitzva boy’s desire to honor his grandfather by donating sports equipment to the country that gave him shelter during the Holocaust — Cuba — and the red tape he encountered along the way. With about 50 hours to […]
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This isn’t exactly a companion piece to R.A. Dickey’s new book, but Knuckleball!, a 90-minute documentary, is an entry at the Tribecca Film Festival. There’s a free screening tomorrow (April 21) with additional screenings on April 22, 27, and 28. From the official TBB website: “A classic sports story from its glorious highs to its […]
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This week’s podcast is a little different. Ari Alexenberg is no author (although as a pitcher I’m sure his “authored” some great games over his long amateur career). Rather he is the subject of Coming Home, a documentary currently under production. The film tells the story of his participation in the only season of the […]
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The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will recognize the twin traditions of baseball and film when, for the sixth consecutive year, it hosts the Baseball Film Festival in Cooperstown, Sept. 30-Oct. 2. Fourteen films, with themes ranging from Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson to the 2003 National League Championship Series, will be screened […]
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Actually several former Yankees — including Hall of Famers Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra, and Phil Rizzuto — made a trip to Austria during the strike season of 1994. The story was capture on film and is in the process of being produced as A Baseball Story Never Told, a documentary by Randy Reynolds, who accompanied […]
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I don’t know where I got the idea that this was going to air on HBO’s Real Sports, but it’s actually going to be on July 13, the day after the All-Star Game. From SportsNewser: Curt Flood, whose pioneering fight against baseball’s reserve clause paved the way for the advent of free agency in the […]
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Years ago, Vince Coleman made a jackass out of himself by forgetting the debt he and other African-American players owed to Jackie Robinson. I wonder if the same generalization could be made about today’s athletes when it comes to the man responsible for the millions of dollars they receive. HBO’s excellent Real Sports program sounds […]
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Bobby Valentine — How has this guy not written a book yet? Between his time as manager for the Texas Rangers and New York Mets after a promising but ultimately injury-aborted playing career, plus his time in Japan, you’d think someone would have published one. There was a cool documentary — The Zen of Bobby […]
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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
