Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Here’s an interesting post from TheYankeeU.com about two American pop culture icons: Baseball and the cinematic western, in this case Bernard Malamud’s classic The Natural juxtaposed with John Ford’s classic, The Searchers. Nice work, even if it does employ Jacues Barzun’s dreaded quote about baseball, a.k.a., “Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of […]
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Thanks to a comment by Robert Loy, I had a “Homer Simpson” moment for totally forgetting about a crucial Salinger/baseball connection. Loy wrote, “What I want to know is why the ever-litigious Salinger didn’t sue Bill Kinsella over being included in ‘Shoeless Joe.’ And if he was okay with it why did they change it […]
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From “Backstop part of 2W January book launch”: Second Wind Publishing is having a launch party on January 29 and 30, which will include my novel Backstop: A Baseball Love Story in Nine Innings. As part of the event, I’m inviting readers to submit a personal account, between 200 and 400 words, of their most […]
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The crime novelist, perhaps best known for his “Spenser” series, passed away at the age of 77. As much as I enjoyed the TV version, starring Robert Urich and Avery Brooks, the novels were all pretty much the same. Parker branched out in later years. He wrote a few mysteries with a female protagonist as […]
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Actually, most are not exactly new, but re-released in paper back editions. But I guess they’re all new if you haven’t read them yet (this sounds like one of those “if a tree falls in the woods…” bits). The only one that might qualify is A Game of Inches: The Stories Behind the Innovations That […]
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by Kurt Willinger (Sabre Press, 1995) Moe Berg is certainly one of the most interesting characters to ever done baseball flannels. A mediocre player — an apocryphal story quotes Casey Stengel saying “He can speak seven languages but can’t hit in any of them — Berg played for five teams over 15 seasons. Had he […]
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Baseball GB (“British perspectives on baseball”) published this review of the classic by Robert Coover. Upshot: If you love baseball and novels, a baseball novel should be the perfect way to combine the two passions; however, there’s always a fear with any sport-based work of fiction that the qualities that make up a great read […]
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Came across an interesting podcast awhile ago, Baseball’s Greatest Hits, produced by author and baseball historian Wayne McCombs for a radio station in Tulsa. Oklahoma. While the program is no longer live, you can still hear several episodes via iTunes, which is where I found this 1948 recording of Elmer, the Great, written by Ring […]
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From Perth to Sacramento, by Nicholas R.W. Henning (Booksurge.com, 2009) Regular readers of the Bookshelf know I rarely offer my own reviews of baseball fiction. I find it too subjective and my education and skills in critiquing the genre too inferior. But once in awhile a book will find its way here that bears some […]
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I should copyright that. Actually it’s The Man With Two Arms, which sounds like a science fiction title but is really about an ambidextrous pitcher. Judging by the review from Publishers Weekly below, it seems better suited for young adults than adult adults. The book is published by Overlook and due out in February. You […]
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I don’t often read baseball fiction these days. I find them too hit-or-miss, pardon the metaphor. One problem is that authors often employ too much exposition, as if their readership knows nothing about the game. Those who do know a fair deal about how baseball is played or its history, might find this boring and […]
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How would one explain how he came across this little item, either when trying to hock it or getting away with actually wearing it? From the Associated Press: PHILADELPHIA(AP) — Something about the janitor’s story didn’t ring true when he led police to a diamond-laden World Series keepsake that had gone missing. The $15,000 ring […]
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Alan Gratz’s Brooklyn Nine, the story of a young Jewish boy’s love for baseball in the early 20th century, is featured on the cover of the September issue of Booklist, the publication of the American Library Association. The issue highlights a sports theme and includes a number “top 10” choices in several categories, such as […]
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by Robert B. Parker. Putnam, 2004. Robert B. Parker’s heroes epitomize the strong silent types. Like the cowboys of old, they are taciturn, unfailingly loyal and determined to pursue the causes of right in the face of superior numbers or disadvantageous circumstances. Joseph Burke is the latest in this mold. Parker, known primarily for his […]
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Wife and daughter are at the Sawx-Tigers game at the moment, so I thought it appropriate to haul these three reviews out of mothballs. All appeared in A Red Sox Journal, published by The Buffalo Head Society in the late 1990s. * * * Murder at Fenway Park, by Troy Soos. Kensington Publishing: NY. 1994 […]
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A version of this review originally appeared on Purebaseball.com in 2001. Summer is firmly entrenched. So is your favorite team … in last place. The time for spring training optimism is over. Face it, it’s the cellar for sure. Now what? Time to tum off the radio, shut the TV and head for the great […]
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Japanese Baseball and Other Stories, by W.P. Kinsella (Thistledown Press, 2000) Baseball Fantastic, edited by W. P. Kinsella (Quarry Press, 2001) It’s been some time since W.P. Kinsella has come out with new baseball fiction. The author of such memorable novels as Shoeless Joe, Box Socials and The Iowa Baseball Confederacy and shorter works, The […]
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I was flattered to be the subject of this interview with Favorite PASTimes, a blog dedicated to historical fiction. Interesting to be on the opposite side of things.
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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
