Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Ain’t it funny how time slips away? Baseball artist Graig Kreindler reminded his Facebook friends that today is the 62nd anniversary of Bobby Thomson’s ‘Shot heard ’round the world.” There have been several books — both fiction and non- — marking this historic event, including, in no particular order: The Echoing Green: The Untold Story […]
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Multiple Cy-Young winner Pedro Martinez will release his eponymous memoir, Pedro, next spring. The book, co-written by the Boston Herald’s Michael Silverman, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. The family of Roberto Clemente has collaborated on Clemente: The True Legacy of an Undying Hero, was released last month. The book was the Hall of Famer’s […]
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Haven’t done one of these in awhile. * The Washington Times posted this one on Willard Mullin’s Golden Age of Baseball: Drawings 1934-1972, edited by Hal Bock and Michael Powers. * WTOP in Washington DC ran this story and audio interview on Fred Frommer’s You Gotta Have Heart: A History of Washington Baseball from 1859 […]
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In a scene from the film version of Eight Men Out, Albert Austrian, the crackerjack attorney hired by Chicago White/Black Sox owner Charles Comiskey to defend his wayward players, is introducing his law partners to the defendants: Austrian: Their names may not sound familiar, but I’d say that these men are the Ty Cobb, the […]
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To steal a line from a regular segment of Pardon the Interruption. Baseball Nation reminds us (okay, reminded me) that today is the 105th anniversary of Merkle’s Boner. Hopefully, this is drumming up some renewed interest in Mike Cameron’s empathetic biography, Public Bonehead, Private Hero: The Real Legacy of Baseball’s Fred Merkle, which is included […]
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I did a post about self-published books awhile back, specifically Mike Gallagher’s The Diamond Deception and how I would pass on it. Kudos to Doug Smith at the Towanda News for devoting the time to reading the novel and writing a review. For me, he sums up my thoughts about such projects thusly: Deception’s” devil […]
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As we approach the tragic anniversary , here’s a new book that examines Baseball after 9/11: Six Nights That Helped Heal America, by Patrick Carney. I read the sample via Amazon but couldn’t get a sense of that quality of the book, which is only 31 pages. Still, it’s less than $3, so maybe it’s […]
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I’m getting to the point where I really don’t need any more T-shirts (or baseball caps), but if I did, I would probably pick from this series of Negro League-inspired attire, currently a Kickstarter project by Charlie Hustle: The Negro League Collection (not sure how that name will affect sales). There are a limited amount […]
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To paraphrase a Groucho Marx line (and with all due respect to the PETA faction), you can’t swing a dead cat (if that’s your idea of a good time) at the annual SABR conference without hitting a baseball writer. While in Philadelphia, I caught up with a few of them (writers, not cats) to see […]
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The New York Times ran this marvelous story about the annual Complete Book of Baseball (and lesser sports) edited by Zander Hollander. A nice history lesson. I still have all of these, along with their predecessor, The xxxx Major League Baseball Handbook. These paperbacks sold for, like 50 cents, maybe a buck towards the end […]
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Author appearance: David King, author of Ross Youngs: In Search of a San Antonio Baseball Legend (TX) (Sports History), will sign copies of his book tomorrow (Aug. 10) from 2-4 p.m. Saturday at Barnes and Noble at The Shops at La Cantera, San Antonio. The book traces the career of the Hall of Famer, who […]
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Baseball artist Graig Kreindler reminds us that today is the anniversary of Hank Greenberg‘s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
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Had these for awhile and still working on the “documentary” about some of there many memorabilia shops in Cooperstown, where I attended the 25th Annual Symposium on Baseball & American Culture last month. (Click on the number to advance the slideshow; click on each photo to enlarge in a new window.) [SlideDeck id=’15803′ width=’100%’ height=’300px’]
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The problem with books about the All-Star Game is that unless it concentrates on one specific contest or the origins of the Midsummer Classic, it will be out-of-date as soon as the next one rolls along. The Midsummer Classic: The Complete History of Baseball’s All-Star Game Baseball’s All-Star Game: A Game-by-Game Guide Baseball’s All-Star Game […]
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All I know about Yankton, South Dakota, was that it was an element in one of my all-time favorite TV shows, Deadwood. Al Swearengen: Bloodletting on my premises that I ain’t approved I take as a f***ing affront. It puts me off my feed. Hearst:How do we know when you are off your feed? Al […]
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Born this date: 1916 – Bob Prince, announcer (d. 1985) We Had ‘Em All the Way: Bob Prince & His Pittsburgh Pirates Lest we forget: 2008 – Jules Tygiel, author (b. 1949) Baseball’s Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy Past Time: Baseball As History\ Extra Bases: Reflections on Jackie Robinson, Race, and Baseball History […]
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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
That reminds me of a story…
August 29, 2013
Josh Levin of Slate’s Hang Up and Listen podcast posted this educational piece on “The Worst Baseball Card of All Time.” Spoiler alert: It’s Bob Hamlin in the 1996 Pinnacle Foil set (card no. 289). Levin’s essay makes some very good arguments and offers a mini-history lesson on the industry, full of links to examples […]
Tagged as: Baseball Cards, Josh Levin
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