Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
First of all, congratulations to Josh R. of Madison, NJ, winner of last week’s book, Doc: A Memoir, by Dwight Gooden and Ellis Henican. This week’s offering is (another copy of) Stars and Strikes, Dan Epstein’s critically-acclaimed look at the national pastime at the nation’s bicentennial. Changing up the “rules” a bit: This will henceforth […]
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There’s something inherently unfair about lumping together post-season records. Prior to 1969, there were just two teams still active after the regular 162 slate of games. Then there were an additional four. An additional round was added in 1995, and, in 2012, an additional game for the Wild Card play-in. So the if all the […]
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Dan Epstein’s Star and Strikes from the Dallas Morning News and the Tulsa World. Bill Littlefield, host of WBUR’s Only a Game, includes Alan Klein’s Dominican Baseball in this brief trio of sports reviews for the Boston Globe. The Baptist Press offers this one on Double Play, by Ben and Julianna Zobrist.
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Looking over the overlooked in baseball books stuff. In honor of Mothers’ Day, this piece by David Seideman in Forbes urges you to “Forgive Your Mom For Throwing Out Your Baseball Cards.” Is it my imagination or are Mookie Wilson and Bill Buckner turning into Ralph Branca and Bobby Thomson? MLB.com described Mookie’s new memoir […]
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Looks like no one was interested enough in A Nice Little Place on the North Side to warrant the requisite five comments. Oh well. Let’s try it again with a copy of The Kid: The Immortal Life to Ted Williams, by Ben Bradlee Jr. A reminder about the rules: The fifth person to post a […]
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When I spoke with Dan Epstein (the author from California, not the photographer for my daughter’s bat mitzva), he reminded me that the first interview he ever did for his first book, Big Hair and Plastic Grass, was for the Bookshelf (you can stroll down memory lane here). So I take full credit for his […]
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Humbly submitted for your interest, a doubleheader featuring They Called Me God by Doug Harvey with Peter Golenbock and Called Out but Safe by Al Clark with Dan Schlossberg; and another one on Stars and Strikes by Dan Epstein that were published by Bookreporter.com yesterday.
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The top ten baseball books as per Amazon.com. Caveat 1: Print editions only (at least for now); I’m old fashioned that way. Caveat 2: Since the rankings are updated every hour, these lists might not longer be 100 percent accurate by the time you read it. But it’ll be close enough for government work. Caveat […]
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The Katz JCC and the Board of Jewish Education will present three programs about baseball and the Jewish experience. Brunch and Learn 10 a.m. Tuesday, May 13 will feature the film Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story, which traces Jewish involvement in the history of the sport. Cost is $5. On Tuesday, May 20 […]
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On this date 1936: The first professional baseball game played in the Japanese Baseball League. Nagoya defeats Dai Tokyo, 8 – 5. You Gotta Have Wa* Sayonara Home Run!: The Art of the Japanese Baseball Card* Remembering Japanese Baseball: An Oral History of the Game (Writing Baseball) Born this date 1947: Tom House, pitcher The […]
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On this date in 2012, Bryce Harper made his debut for the Washington Nationals. Phenom: The Making of Bryce Harper The Last Natural: Bryce Harper’s Big Gamble in Sin City and the Greatest Amateur Season Ever Beltway Boys: Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper, and the Rise of the Nationals So let’s see that’s three books in […]
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Over the past several days I’ve posted twice about Lou Gehrig, including his role inn the B-western film Rawhide. So what was in yesterday’s NY Times? When the Iron Horse (Almost) Played Tarzan
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Politics aside, I’ve often wondering why such smart people such as Doris Kearns Goodwin, Thomas Oliphant, and George Will (among others), have such an affinity for baseball. here, Will — author of A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at One Hundred — tries to explain why the game is such a […]
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On this date in 1981: Seattle Mariners manager Maury Wills is suspended for two games as punishment for ordering the grounds crew to enlarge the batter’s boxes at the Kingdome. Wills decided to tamper with the chalk lines after the Oakland Athletics complained that Seattle’s Tom Paciorek repeatedly stepped out of the batter’s box while hitting. […]
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There are a few really good books that track the history of baseball in a day-by-day format. Obviously, some are better than others. My go-to is The Baseball Timeline: The Day-By-Day History of Baseball, from Valley Forge to the Present Day by Burt Solomon, originally published as a paperback by Avon in 1997. It was […]
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First of all, congratulations to John M. of Hillsborough, NJ, winner of last week’s book, Down to the Last Pitch: How the 1991 Minnesota Twins and Atlanta Braves Gave Us the Best World Series of All Time, by Tim Wendel. Thank you all for your comments. This week’s offering is the brand-spankin’ new copy of […]
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A Celebration of Baseball’s Greats In Stories and Images, The Complete Roster of Inductees, by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Little, Brown and Company, 648 pages. $35. In a sense, it’s not fair to judge a book like this. After all, who has more resources about the history of the game and […]
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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
