Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
To paraphrase from a Thomas Boswell classic, “Time Begins on Opening Day.” In Michael Ortman‘s case, multiply that times 50. One of the things I wanted to ask the author of Opening Day: 50-for-50: One Fan, One Game, A Half-Century of Baseball Stories was how his approach to the game has changed over time. Like […]
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The Ballpark Bucket List: The Ultimate Scorecard for Visiting All 30 Major League Parks, by James Buckley Jr. How to describe this fun little volume? While it is technically a book, it’s more like a diary, a chance to note a fan’s ambitious goal of visiting every stadium in the big leagues. Each of the […]
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My baseball library is divided into three main sections: the attic, my basement office, and the rest of the house. I was cleaning the attic yesterday, because what else is there to do? While trying to cull the herd, putting things in boxes to eventually give away or ::shudder:: throw out, I can across a […]
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Words cannot express the sadness at the passing of the comedy legend (and long-time Dodgers fan). We shall not see his kind again.
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Note: 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 writing one). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes. In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast one […]
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The comedy legend died Friday at the age of 86. Here he sits down with baseball writer and movie buff Rob Neyer to talk about the game he loved.
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Bases to Bleachers: A Collection of Personal Baseball Stories from the Stands and Beyond, by Eric C. Gray. Two days in a row; so far, so good. I think if we all got together and exchanged anecdotes about our special moments and relationship with a topic — any topic, not just baseball — the world […]
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The acerbic comedian died today at the age of 90. A hardcore fan, he was frequently seen at those celebrity games as chronicled in Joe Siegman’s book, Bats, Balls, and Hollywood Stars: Hollywood’s Love Affair with Baseball, released in 2014. Rickles enjoyed talking about the game. Here he speaks with David Letterman in 1998. And […]
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NOTE: I have been posting these things long enough now that a few have commented that the introductory section isn’t necessary anymore. But I’m leaving it in because, to paraphrase Joe DiMaggio when asked why he played so hard all the time, there may be people who’ve never read the best-seller entries before. So on […]
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Another example of the “anything to separate the fans from their money” philosophy.
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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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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
Change for change’s sake? Pass.
June 4, 2015
Found this on Facebook this morning via Marc Ernay, sports director at 1010 WINS: In the words of my good friend, Howard Walawitz: What kind of market study did the knobs at MLB.com do to determine that this was cutting edge, that this is what it takes to retain the interest of younger fans? If […]
Tagged as: baseball box scores, MLB.com
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