Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
The Body Scout: A Novel, by Lincoln Michel I was going to hold off on this until I finished A Mound Over Hell, the first book in a trilogy by Gary Morgenstern, because both were about baseball in a dystopian world. But then I came across an article posted on The Athletic — “Why the […]
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No, Michael Nussbaum never played professional baseball. Nor was he an executive or a coach on any level. So what’s the connection? Recognize him now? It’s a scene from Field of Dreams (1989) in which Ray Kinsella and his wife, Annie, attend a school meeting regarding book censorship (unfortunately still a topical issue today. Not […]
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The author of one of my favorite baseball novels, Brittle Innings, passed away on Nov. 13 at the age of 78. Here’s his obit from locusmag.com and his entry from the online Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Normally I don’t rely on Wikipedia, but in this case, the synopsis for the 1994 publication is pretty accurate: […]
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They say you never have a second chance to make a first impression. Well, duh. But you may have a second chance when it comes to a book review. I often wonder about professional critics. What kind of expertise do they have in the topic they’re writing about? What was their mood when they wrote […]
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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.az (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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Used to be around this time of year you could look forward to the baseball annuals from Street & Smith, Athlon, Lindy’s, and a host of other magazine publishers. Of course, back in the day there were many others put out by the likes of The Sporting News, Major League Baseball, Bill Mazeroski, with Baseball […]
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As we celebrate Martin Luther King Day, this from Movieguide on the best movies to watch to mark the occasion, including the Jackie Robinson biopic, 42. Here are a few entries I posted back around the time it came out: The cast of 42: You be the judge 42 Overview Bookshelf Review: 42 […]
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January 3? Already? Where did the year go? From RoyalsReview.com, this list of “15 books for baseball fans—and some for other sports fans, too.” (Note: not necessarily new releases.) Peter Dreier, co-author of Baseball Rebels: The Players, People, and Social Movements That Shook Up the Game and Changed America and Major League Rebels: Baseball […]
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The Death and Resurrection of Baseball: Echos from a Distant Past, by William R. Douglas From time to time I wonder how much longer baseball will last. Will the astronomical salaries paid to players who have little allegiance to a particular franchise finally turn off working-class fans, fed up with ever-increasing ticket prices? Will the […]
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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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Normally I wouldn’t post on Saturday but given that this article from Screen Rant is titled “10 Baseball TV Shows To Watch During The World Series” and the Series could be over tonight… Although if you’re at all interested in baseball, why would you want to watch shows about the game rather than the game […]
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I’ve said it time and again here: I am not a huge fan of posting about baseball fiction. I just feel unqualified to opine on the details since I lack the educational background to parse about it with any degree of confidence or even intelligence. That said, when I learned about the topic of The […]
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♦ Over/under: two books about Aaron Judge and/or home runs record next year. There’s certainly been enough discussion to warrant something. Here’s a recent piece from The New Yorker. ♦ As we head into the postseason, there will be a number of articles/stories by people and outlets that don’t normally cover baseball. And a lot […]
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Please note that I have not read every book mentioned in these B&P’s. Just passing along information as I find it. ♦ I love me a good speculative fiction and I’ve often wondered how long pro baseball will be around. The Death and Resurrection of Baseball seeks to respond to that idea as per this […]
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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
