Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Since I posted the first of these on a Thursday, which is known on social media as a time of reflection, I thought to make it a regular thing under this rubric. These are kind of fun; it’s like a box of chocolates — you never know what you’re gonna get. (Actually, I never understood […]
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NEW STUFF: I have been posting these things long enough now that a few have commented that the introductory section isn’t necessary anymore. But I’m leaving it in because, to paraphrase Joe DiMaggio when asked why he played so hard all the time, there may be people who’ve never read the best-seller entries before. So… […]
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Kind of weird: it’s almost June and still no baseball book reviews in The New York Times? I know space is precious on those pages, but still. There are any number of worthy candidates. Get on it, Times. In the meantime: From the Rockford, Ill., Rock River Times, this piece on Steven K. Wagner’s Perfect: The […]
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Posting a bit earlier than usual today because Rachel has her second graduation ceremony today. Where did the time go? NEW STUFF: I have been posting these things long enough now that a few have commented that the introductory section isn’t necessary anymore. But I’m leaving it in because, to paraphrase Joe DiMaggio when asked […]
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When I saw Richard Sandomir’s article in The New York Times last year about about Jeff Katz , the Mayor of Cooperstown who writes about baseball, I thought: there but for the grace of God…. My wife, a veterinarian, had a chance to get a job in Cooperstown way back when our daughter was two. […]
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The New York Public Library posted this list of five books that concentrate on a single season, including: 1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever by Bill Madden Summer of ’68: The Season That Changed Baseball—and America—Forever by Tim Wendel Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in […]
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Although known more for his classic, The Art of Writing Well, William Zinsser — who passed away May 12 at the age of 92 — also published Spring Training, a “memoir” of the Pittsburgh Pirates in spring training in 1988. Not surprisingly, it was well-received. Here are the obits from the Washington Post and The […]
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NEW STUFF: I have been posting these things long enough now that a few have commented that the introductory section isn’t necessary anymore. But I’m leaving it in because, to paraphrase Joe DiMaggio when asked why he played so hard all the time, there may be people who’ve never read the best-seller entries before. So… […]
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The Yog turns 90 today, God bless. I ran this piece four years ago, listing several titles about and (ostensibly) by the Hall of Famer. Except for the age, the info remains valid except for the addition of my NJ neighbor Harvey Araton‘s excellent book, Driving Mr. Yogi: Yogi Berra, Ron Guidry, and Baseball’s Greatest […]
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Two pieces from Kris Kosaka in The Japan Times on the “national game there and here. First she tells us about Robert Fitts’ new biography on Masanori Murakami, the first baseball player from Japan to play for a Major League team in the U.S. when he appeared for the San Francisco Giants in 1965. Then […]
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NEW STUFF: I have been posting these things long enough now that a few have commented that the introductory section isn’t necessary anymore. But I’m leaving it in because, to paraphrase Joe DiMaggio when asked why he played so hard all the time, there may be people who’ve never read the best-seller entries before. So… […]
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It’s still Thursday somewhere, right? Got sidetracked yesterday and this slipped my mind. Since I posted the first of these on a Thursday, which is known on social media as a time of reflection, I thought to make it a regular thing under this rubric. These are kind of fun; it’s like a box of […]
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I was listening to a Leonard Lopate interview with Greg Proops, a comic featured on the popular TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway, host of The Smartest Man in the World podcast, and, most recently, author of The Smartest Book in the World: A Lexicon of Literacy, A Rancorous Reportage, A Concise Curriculum of […]
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Just finished thumbing through A History of Baseball in 100 Objects, the latest baseball release by Josh Leventhal, author of several other well-produced baseball titles. The objects included herein represent the game since before its “formal” recognized inception in the mid 1800s (and please don’t write about the exact DOB of the game). But the […]
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(As opposed to ESPN’s 30 for 30 series). Once again, Tom Hoffarth of the LA Daily News has done a great service to the baseball reading community with his annual 30-books-in-30-days series on his “Farther off the Wall” blog. I advise going deep into each piece because Hoffarth offers interesting links among his DVD-type “extras.” […]
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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
Change for change’s sake? Pass.
June 4, 2015
Found this on Facebook this morning via Marc Ernay, sports director at 1010 WINS: In the words of my good friend, Howard Walawitz: What kind of market study did the knobs at MLB.com do to determine that this was cutting edge, that this is what it takes to retain the interest of younger fans? If […]
Tagged as: baseball box scores, MLB.com
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