Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
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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Pithy observation from the Baseball USA: Two late-season baseball books arrived in the mail. They are “Glory in the Fall,” an anthology of stories about World Series history and the Red Sox figure prominently. It is published by Union Square Press. The other is Baseball: An Illustrated History. It is essentially the print version of […]
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As the days dwindle down to a precious few, here’s an attempt at a major catch-up: I met Rob Fitts at the SABR convention in Washington, DC, last year. His specialty is Japanese baseball. Here’s his site on baseball cards. The NY Times‘ Alan Schwarz covered the convention’s always-entertaining trivia contest. You know the theoretical […]
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Can’t believe the season is almost over. The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of 2 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 1. Title Rank General Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu: John Updike on Ted Williams, by John Updike 1 The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy 2 Moneyball: […]
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To Hall of Famer Rod Carew, who turns 65 today. Carew, by Carew with Ira Berkow Rod Carew’s Art and Science of Hitting Also marking the occasion, Mark McGwire, who perhaps could have been a Hall of Famer, turns 47. There were two “waves” of books about Big Mac. The first came in 1998 when […]
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A handful of players have been fortunate enough to enjoy a storybook ending to their career: ending with a bang. None have done it with as much mystique as Ted Williams. The Splendid Splinter played his last major league game against the Baltimore Orioles on September 28, 1960. A dreary affair, with nothing on the […]
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premieres tomorrow on PBS. Consult your local listings. From The New York Times: “Baseball Continued: Between Rebirth and Calamity“ From The Atlantic: “Burns Back at Bat“
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Happy birthday to Johnny Pesky, inventor of Fenway Park’s Pesky Pole, 91 years young today. Pesky was the author or subject of several books about the Red Sox, including Diary of a Red Sox Season Mr. Red Sox: The Johnny Pesky Story, by Bill Nowlin Few and Chosen: Defining Red Sox Greatness Across the Eras […]
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Trying to play catch-up once again: Reviews of Michael Shapiro‘s Bottom of the Ninth: Branch Rickey, Casey Stengel, and the Daring Scheme to Save Baseball from Itself and Cardboard Gods: An All-American Tale Told Through Baseball Cards, by Josh Wilker, can be found on Meals from the Marketplace. Upshots: Bottom of the Ninth — “he […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Noon on Friday, Sept. 27. Title Rank General Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis 1 Ball Four, by Jim Bouton 2 The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime by Jason Turbow and Michael […]
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Some new programs are coming to a television near you. Ken Burns tacks The Tenth Inning onto his wonderful Baseball miniseries, which originally aired in 1995. The two-part, four-hour epilogue airs on PBS Sept. 28-29 at 8 p.m. EST, but as they say, check your local listings. You’ll probably have to adjust the volume on […]
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Of course, football dominates this week, so the lone baseball item in Sports Illustrated is The Amazing Race, by L. Jon Wertheim: “How Ty Cobb, Nap Lajoie, a grudge-holding manager, a clumsy bribe, shoddy record-keeping and a very cool car made the batting title chase a national obsession 100 years ago.”
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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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