Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Lev Grossman contributed this piece on “Seven Books I’m Looking Forward to in 2012,” and since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I thought I might borrow that idea for these baseball titles on the schedule for next year that I’m particularly looking forward to. Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees from Before the […]
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The following message comes from Richard J. Puerzer of Hofstra University. * * * April 2012 will mark the 50th anniversary of the New York Mets, one of the most popular and culturally significant baseball franchises. On Thursday through Sunday, April 26-28, 2012, Hofstra University will host a conference to consider all aspects of the […]
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Sometimes I wonder, with all the new books coming out every year, why anyone would want to read something they’ve already read before. So many books, so little time. But while working on the 501 Book project I came across several titles in my library that I had never read, which no doubt led to […]
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Just finished the 400th of the 501 books for my UNP project. Now the hard part is trying to be even more discerning in picking the rest of the titles. One of the problems I’ve encountered in going through all this stuff is time: I’ll pick something up and want to re-read it, but with […]
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As of this writing, Derek Jeter stands just four hits away from the magical 3,000. ESPN is working on Derek Jeter 3K, a “documentary” “Set to Air Just Weeks After 3,000th Hit,” according to a press release. Can the souvenir t-shirts, caps, etc. be far behind? The name seems like a natural for a video […]
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Remember how when you were a kid in school you didn’t like to talk about your tests right after you took them because you were afraid you’d jinx it? Well, that’s the way I felt about this bit of news. But now that it’s official… I have just signed a contract for my first book. […]
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Pitcher Virgil “Fire” Trucks turns 94 today. Throwing Heat: The Life and Times of Virgil “Fire” Trucks, by Trucks, with Joyner and Bozman, 2004 Also born this date: Sal Maglie in 1917. He earned his nickname because a) he always looked like he was in need of one; and b) hie licked giving batters close […]
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When I first saw the headline in Saturday’s NY Times, I thought the writer, David Waldstein, was speaking metaphorically. Turns out Dickey — the surprise pitching star for the Mets in an otherwise dismal 2010 — actually is writing a book, with the help of Wayne Coffey of the NY Daily News. From the Times‘ […]
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By the way, it’s still winter so why aren’t we hearing snow-themed songs anymore? “Winter Wonderland” and “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” among others, are not “holiday” songs, per se, so they’d still be valid. Just sayin’. Thought I saw my first “annual” at the bookstore last week, but it was a fantasy publication, so it […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Jan. 14, 1:37 p.m. Title Rank General The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy 1 Baseball Prospectus 2011 2 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis 3 Baseball Forecaster 2011, by Ron Shandler 4 […]
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One of my favorite off-beat baseball sites is Craig Robinson’s Flip Flop Flyball. (I wrote about Robinson and his work awhile back.) Rather than the usual staid numbers, Robinson — a graphic artist originally from Great Britain — takes unusual items and turns them into colorful graphic representations. Among the topics he’s considered on the […]
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Author Daniel Ford previews his as-yet-unfiehsed baseball novel on his epnonymous blog, Baseball Sunday with Daniel Ford. So, some of the ballparks are going the healthy route and selling fresh fruit? What are they, my mother? A review of a book about old baseball by a young fan (Major League Baseball Players of 1916, published […]
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Use PED, of course. That’s one of the topics of Murray Chass’s Aug. 16 column, in he he ponders the advisability of a Mike Piazza auto-bio. I quote, at length: Several months ago I heard that Piazza may be doing a book. The publisher, Simon & Schuster, I was told, had signed a contract for […]
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In an item on The New Yorker website, Ben McGrath reminds us that Jose Canseco, the author of Juiced and Vindicated reported on A-Rod’s juice use years ago, but no one wanted to believe him. Does that make Canseco a Cassandra? In other book news of special interest to New York fans: Don’t look for […]
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So what do you think: will the reports of A-Rod on steroids help the sale of Joe Torre’s book? Not that it needs much in the way of a push, according to this piece in the New York Daily News. A suspicious person would wonder about the timing of the announcement. After all, it’s been […]
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Jonah Keri announces on his blog that his has agreed to terms with ESPN Books and Random House on a book analyzing the Tampa Bay Rays and the team’s “Wall Street approach to baseball.” (The concept sounds very interesting, but with the way Wall Street is going these days, maybe the Rays should look for […]
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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
* New titles from Bloomsbury
December 2, 2009
Their official spring-summer 2010 catalog isn’t online yet, but Bloomsbury is printing one new title and a 2009 title with a new afterword. The new title is Charlie Finley: The Life of Baseball’s Super Showman, a joint effort by G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius, slated for a July release. From the catalog: Before […]
Tagged as: Baseball Hall of Fame, Bloomsbury, Charlie Finley, Zev Chafets
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