Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
♦ Ron Shelton’s The Church of Baseball: The Making of Bull Durham: Home Runs, Bad Calls, Crazy Fights, Big Swings, and a Hit is among USA Today’s “Best Books of 2022.” Here’s our Bookshelf Conversation with Shelton. Meanwhile, True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson by Kostya Kennedy and The Grandest Stage: A History of […]
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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. In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast […]
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The young man who caught Roger Maris’ iconic 61st home run in 1961 died as an old man of 81 in 2022. He passed away last Thursday. From today’s New York Times obituary by Richard Sandomir On that fall afternoon, Maris was tied with Babe Ruth for the single-season major league record of 60 home […]
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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. In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
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. In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
If it seems there have been a lot of Conversations with Jon Leonoudakis, it’s because he’s constantly putting out new product. In this case, it’s Ball Four Turns 40, a documentary about that watershed memoir by the irrepressible Jim Bouton. In our latest chat, we talk about the gathering of the Baseball Reliquary in 2011 […]
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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. In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
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. In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
♦ Lots of baseball broadcasters write books, but they’re usually about the game. Not Steve Physioc of the Kansas City Royals. He’s written a number of novels. ♦ Dan Levitt talks about his new book, Intentional Balk: Baseball’s Thin Line Between Innovation and Cheating, written with Mark Armour on Awful Announcing. Look for my Bookshelf […]
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Happy Veterans Day, everyone. There have been a number of good books linking baseball with wartime. Here are just a few: When Baseball Went to War From the Dugouts to the Trenches: Baseball during the Great War War Fever: Boston, Baseball, and America in the Shadow of the Great War Baseball’s War Roster: A Biographical […]
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The CASEY Award hits the “big 4-oh” Anniversary in 2022. “It seems only appropriate that we should wind up with such an outstanding field of contenders for the CASEY in this milestone year,” said Spitball Editor-in-Chief Mike Shannon. “I think the CASEYs demonstrated long ago that no other sport produces great literature, year in and […]
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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. In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
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. In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
♦ From Sports Collectors Daily: “Mickey Mantle: A Life In Memorabilia acts as a museum tour through Mantle’s life. It includes items from Lane’s extensive and valuable collection as well as stories from Mantle’s 18-year career. “‘This book is as close as one can get to these artifacts without actually holding them,’ [author Steven] Lane […]
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A History of the World Series, by Tyler Kepner, on Bookreporter.com.
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The latest disappointment of the Mets losing in the Wild Card round after finishing with 101 wins during the regular season brought to mind Devin Gordon’s 2021 book So Many Ways to Lose: The Amazin’ True Story of the New York Mets―the Best Worst Team in Sports. I was in touch with Gordon and he […]
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More on Tyler Kepner’s new book: From the Washington Post, this review An video interview with Nestor, a very enthusiastic Baltimore-based sportscaster From Kirkus From Shelf-Awareness.com There are dozens of titles about individual world series — the 1919 Black Sox Scandal immediately comes to mind — and lately it seems like local newspapers will rush […]
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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
