Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Lou Limmer was a power-hitting first baseman for the Philadelphia As in the early 1950s. In 1954 — his only full season, he hit 14 home runs. That may not sound like much, but it was good enough for a second-place tie on a stinko team that finished in the basement, 60 games behind the […]
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To Peter Schilling, Jr. The St. Louis Post Dispatch picked his novel as one of the best books of 2008, to wit: The End of Baseball by Peter Schilling Jr. (Ivan R. Dee, 352 pages, $25). Baseball’s 1944 Brownies live again in this rollicking novel. Owner Bill Veeck shines in fiction, just as he did […]
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Spitball Magazine just announced the finalists for the 2008 CASEY Award, Almost a Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the 1980 Phillies, by William Kashatus (University of Pennsylvania Press) Neil Leifer: Ballet in the Dirt: The Golden Age of Baseball, by Neil Leifer (Taschen) (See here for samples.) Baseball’s Greatest Hit: The Story of “Take […]
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The Oklahoman’s sports columnist Berry Tramel offers this list of five favorite baseball novels, which does not contain many of the “usual suspects.”
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Rapid Robert turned 90 on Nov. 3. Feller was one of those players from “the greatest generation” — including Ted Williams, Warren Spahn, Bob Buhl, Hank Greenberg, Joe DiMaggio and many others — who lost precious years to the service of their country. Yes, some, like Feller and Williams, were on the front lines while […]
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From the One Minute Book Reviews blog, this mini-rev of a cuh-lassic. Upshot: “…written for adults but likely also to appeal to many teenagers.”
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MyrtleBeachOnline’s sports columnist Sean Horgan offered a list of 20 great sports books, including the following baseball titles, listed in his order: The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, (Bill James, 1986) This book changed the way many people looked at baseball, encompassing history, anecdotes and statistical analysis. The Great American Novel (Philip Roth, 1973) Roth […]
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Talk about sub-genres. How about a baseball mystery novel? This review comes from Mystery-Books.com. Upshot: Fans of baseball novels will undoubtedly be thrilled with Green Monster and overlook the flaws that make this mystery no better than average. Talk about damning with faint praise…
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Kidliterate.com published this review of Alan Gratz’s latest. Gratz also wrote Samurai Shortstop, a young adult/historical fiction book on baseball at a Japanese school in the late 19th century. Visit Gratz’s Web site.
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From Texas Pages, which provides information about writers, books and events in the Lone Star state, the following announcement: * Forced Out, by Stephen Frey (Atria, $24.95). Follows a baseball scout, player and mafia hitman as their destinies converge.
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From the New Haven Review, this lengthy critique by Peter Ephross of this overlooked classic by Eliot Asinof.
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from the Scooter Chronicles blog. Upshot: As far as baseball books go, I can see why this ranks amongst the best. I don’t know from experience, or from reading anyone that has said so, but I get the feeling that it’s a very accurate description of what life could have been like playing for a […]
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In the current issue of ESPN The Magazine, Rick Reilly writes about a high school pitcher who deliberately threw at a home plate umpire, instructing his catcher to let the ball go on through. You can read that piece here. The scenario is eerily reminiscent of a scene from Philip Roth’s The Great American Novel […]
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by Frank Nappi. St. Martin’s Press I don’t ordinarily read baseball fiction aimed at the young adult demographic. Most are simply rehashes of the same story: young athlete, usually a star, faces adversity in the form of another player on his own team or a health crises or another at-home situation; learns valuable lessons, yada-yada-yada; […]
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My review of Mike Lupica’s latest title for “young adult” readers (there’s something inaccurate about that designation; a young adult should probably be in his/her late teens or early twenties, depending on state laws, not the intended audience of 12-16 year-olds. I’m just sayin’.): Mike Lupica, the veteran sports columnist for the Daily News in […]
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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
* Playing catch up, part 1
December 6, 2008
Been a bit remiss in recent weeks, so trying to catch up with a roundup of items: BaseballFarming.com offers a list of “Baseball Books to Love,” which includes fiction and non-fiction titles. Prior to 2008, baseball didn’t have to sully itself with official instant replay, but since it did, might as well bone up on […]
Tagged as: baseball books
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