Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Baseball lifer George “Birdie” Tebbetts was born on this date in 1912. A catcher, he spent 14 seasons as an active player before taking of the managerial reins of the Cincinnati Redlegs, as they were called in the early 1950s during the Communist scare, as per this Wikipedia entry: “Twice in the 1950s (the McCarthy […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Nov. 5 at Noon. Title Rank General The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy 1 Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back, by Josh Hamilton and Tim Keown 2 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, […]
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Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Janey Leavy. Harper, 2010. If she’s not careful, Jane Leavy will earn a reputation as the Boswell of the battered ballplayer. In 2002, she wrote the definitive biography (to this point) of the role model to Jewish boomers everywhere in Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy. In […]
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Bob Feller, one of the fastest pitchers in Major League history, turns 92 today. Feller was one of those “Greatest Americans” who served in combat in World War II (as opposed to ballplayers who continued to play, albeit within the confines of military service). He lost more than three prime years. Several sabermetricians have posited […]
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Marking the occasion: Ed Delahanty and Bill Terry. Born in 1867, Delahanty was one of the games first superstars, plying his trade for the primarily for the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1980s. In his 16 year career, he batted .346 with 101 home runs and 1,466 RBIs. He met his fate under odd circumstances that […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Oct. 30 at 1 p.m. Title Rank General The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood , by Jane Leavy 1 Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back, by Josh Hamilton and Tim Keown 2 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair […]
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The Hall of Fame slugger and host of the popular Mets post-game show bearing his name, turns 88 today. Kiner is one of those former players employed as a broadcaster to compare contemporary players to those of their (back in the) day. Like many of his fellow announcers, Kiner was known to mangle a few […]
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Pedro Martinez turns 39 today. Hard to believe he couldn’t find somebody to take a chance on him in 2010. He was the subject for numerous children’s books in both English and Spanish, as well as Pedro, Carlos, and Omar: The Story of a Season in the Big Apple and the Pursuit of Baseball’s Top […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of 10 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 22. Title Rank General The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy 1 Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back, by Josh Hamilton 2 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael […]
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The other “Chairman of the Board” turns 82 today, a day after the birthday of his Yankee friend and teammate, Mickey Mantle. In his last two seasons with the Yankees, Ford — inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1974 — had a record of 4-9. Subtract that from his career totals and he would […]
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To Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown, born this date in 1876. The Hall of Famer pitched mostly for the Chicago Cubs the last time they were good, compiling a record of 239-130, 2.06 in 14 seasons. He won 20 or more games for six consecutive seasons. And he didn’t even ame his big league debut until […]
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One of these days, some enterprising person is going to go back to all those historic baseball games and write about the secondary events that helped pave the way for a Kirk Gibson, a Joe Carter, or a Bill Mazeroski to become part of the lore of the national pastime. But don’t forget the Hal […]
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The NY Daily News begins a series of excerpts from Jane Leavy’s new book: “Mickey Mantle finally opens up about childhood sexual abuse” Richard Sandomir of The New York Times offers this piece. Expect a full-blown review in Sunday’s Book Review Section. James Bailey wrote this review for Baseball America. Upshot: “Mission accomplished, and powerfully […]
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From MLB.com: With the MLB Postseason underway, a one-of-a-kind item celebrating the game’s history is now available through a special charity auction on MLB.com. The Official Major League Baseball Opus tells the story of baseball’s heritage on a scale unmatched in the history of illustrated publishing. Measuring 20 inches square and weighing 75 pounds with […]
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To Hall of Famer Joe Cronin, who was born this date in 1906. Cronin was one of those baseball lifers who excelled as a player and then went on to have a lengthy career as a manager and front office executive. Joe Cronin: A Life in Baseball, by Mark Armour From Sandlots to League President: […]
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Happy birthday, Joe. Can’t believe you’re 70 today. The title of his book — Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud, written with Berry Stainback and published in 1975 — was perfect. He was pretty good — a three time All-Star and Golve Glove winner — but had the bad timing to be on the Yankees […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of 10 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 8. Title Rank General The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy 1 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis 2 Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu: John Updike on Ted Williams, […]
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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
A matter of interpretation: Publishers’ publicity departments praising their authors
October 8, 2010 · 2 comments
So yesterday I wrote about Jane Leavy’s new book on Mickey Mantle, published by Harper Collins, which got the “excerpt treatment” from Sports Illustrated. Since I have yet to get my copy, I started looking around to see if there were other excerpts available. I eventually found my way to Leavy’s page on the Harper […]
Tagged as: Allan Barra, Jane Leavy, Mickey Mantle
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