Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
A new year, a new look for the BBS list. I’ve decided to bow to the times and include separate lists for e-books and audio books. Be aware that while many titles also appear in print versions, pretty much anyone can produce an e-book these days, so I’m not going to comment at all about […]
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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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Publishers occasionally offer excerpts of the books to major newspapers an/or magazines to give potential consumers a free sample of their product.In many cases, the selections are the literary equivalent of movie trailers, picking the most interesting plot points. Often a local publication will give the treatment to a person associated with the market reach. […]
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Since I posted the first of these last Thursday, which is known on social media as a time of reflection, I thought to make it a regular thing under this rubric. As a reminder, I highly recommend Pocket as a way to hold onto links you come that you want to keep. Unlike bookmarks, Pocket […]
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Blood Sport: Alex Rodriguez, Biogenesis, and the Quest to End Baseball’s Steroid Era, by Tim Elfrink and Gus Garcia-Roberts, is set to come out next Tuesday. Needless to say, it’s already getting some buzz. Unlike books by, say Joe Torre, Mariano Rivera, Mookie Wilson, or even Selena Roberts’ 2009 release, A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez, there’s […]
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It’s that time of year when publications — both print and on-line — put out their lists of hot new baseball titles, either from a staff writer or guest contributor. One of the reasons publishers get their lists out so far in advance is that the general media (i.e., not the sports sections) “celebrates” the […]
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I’m reading The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams for an upcoming review on Bookreporter.com. When I received the galleys, my first thought was similar to Rob Neyer’s, who noted in this post, “Hey, there’s another book about Ted Williams.” (Excerpt here. By the way, although I understand the title, it’s too similar to […]
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Regardless of your opinion of Tim McCarver, endings are almost always sad. Last night’s World Series finale was the swan song of his broadcasting career. I especially appreciate McCarver’s comment that his goals as a broadcaster included “teaching you something you may not have known about this great game.” He’s done that on the air […]
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♦ The latest on Tom Hoffarth’s 30/30 list: Double No-Hit: Johnny Vander Meer’s History Night Under the Lights, by James W. Johnson. Upshot: “Details come to life here, and thankfully, we find out much more about “The Dutch Master” than a box score can show.”
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R.A. Dickey has a reputation as a renaissance man. He’s a good speaker, has many interests that go beyond the standard jock topics. So when I heard he was writing a book, I was looking forward to it. But now, judging by some items I’ve seen — which I know is unfair — it appears […]
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Editor’s note: JTA published this excerpt from Jewish Major Leaguers in Their Own Words: Oral Histories of 23 Players, edited by Peter Ephross and published by McFarland. Talkin’ baseball: Jewish Major Leaguers and why we care about them by Peter Ephross Nearly all fans of baseball history have heard of Hank Greenberg. Most have heard […]
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Yankees.baseball-news-update.com posted reviews of two titles: Dayn Perry’s Reggie Jackson, and 1921, by Spatz and Steinberg. While the writer deems both to be “serious and thoughtful volumes displaying highly impressive research…. neither book quite fully succeeds.” A celebrity first pitch I’d love to see: A profile in Smithsonian Magazine outs Harper Lee, author of the […]
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By Bob Mitchell. Kensington, 2008. As a lover of the TV show Lost and sci-fi in general, I always welcome the chance to mix the genre with baseball (see, Baseball Fantastic, edited by W.P. Kinsella). So it was with a sense of joy when Bob Mitchell’s Once Upon a Fastball swerved from a regular work […]
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Courtesy Sports Illustrated and Barnes and Noble.
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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
