Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Look for Jame Hirsch, author of the new Mays biography, to be making the media rounds in the weeks ahead (including an interview with the Bookshelf). It’s still a bit early in the reviewing process, but here is a sampling of links to get you started: An interview on WEEI sports radio, New England A […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
This week’s best-selling baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Feb. 12. Title Rank General Baseball Prospectus 2010 1 Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend, by James S. Hirsch 2 Baseball America 2010 Prospect Handbook: The Comprehensive Guide to Rising Stars from the Definitive Source on Prospects 3 2010 Baseball Forecaster (Ron Shandler’s Baseball […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The New York Times is the latest to run a review of James S. Hirsch’s new biography. The upshot: The result is an authoritative if sometimes listless book, one that’s less “Say Hey” than so-so. Like a long out to center field that scores a runner, however, it’s a book that gets the job done. […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Old Hoss Radbourn, the Brutal World of Early Baseball, and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had, by Edward Achorn (Harper Collins) This review comes from the Basil & Spice blog. The book tells of a time in the game when men were men, for better or worse (usually worse). Upshot: “The author’s love for […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The Seattle Times gets props for being the first major publication to publish a review on the long-awaited book on the Hall of Famer, the first part of the baseball “trinity” in New York in the 1950s, as immortalized by Terry Cashman’s tune, “Willie, Mickey, and the Duke.” Upshot: “enormously entertaining and wide-ranging biography.” Thanks […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The man considered by more than a few to be the “real” all-time home run king turns 76 today. At the risk of appearing lazy (I prefer to consider it “recycling”) here’s a link to last year’s birthday tribute to Hammerin’ Hank with a list of books about the Hall of Fame slugger. Howard Bryant’s […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
This week’s best-selling baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Feb. 5. Title Rank General Baseball Prospectus 2010 1 Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend, by James S. Hirsch 2 Baseball America 2010 Prospect Handbook: The Comprehensive Guide to Rising Stars from the Definitive Source on Prospects 3 2010 Baseball Forecaster (Ron Shandler’s Baseball […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
It’s been way to long since a “serious” biography about Willie Mays was published. That’s about to be remedied with Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend by James S. Hirsch, to be published this month by Scribner. Bruce Weber, author of As They See’ Em, wrote this piece for the Sunday Times. Perhaps it’s because […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
This week’s best-selling baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, January 29. Title Rank General Baseball Prospectus 2010 1 Baseball America 2010 Prospect Handbook: The Comprehensive Guide to Rising Stars from the Definitive Source on Prospects 2 2010 Baseball Forecaster (Ron Shandler’s Baseball Forecaster) 3 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
I was honored by the request to pen the foreword for Jews and Baseball, Vol. 2: The Post-Greenberg Years, 1949-2008, by Burton and Benita Boxerman and published by McFarland. The first volume, subtitled Entering the American Mainstream, 1871-1948, was published by McFarland in 2007. Like its predecessor, this new “must-have” serves as a thorough resource […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Or in this case The Baseball Uncyclopedia: A Highly Opinionated, Myth-Busting Guide to the Great American Game — one of my favorite irreverent books about the game — gets a mini-review from Mark’s Epehemera, a card collecting blog.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The baseball lifer — and one of my earliest recollections of my baseball card collection — died on Thursday at the age of 92. From the Dallas Morning News. And Randy Galloway contributed this appreciation in the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. Bragan published his memoirs (right) in 1992.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
There’s been a lot of talk about what to do with the statistics from the Steroids Era. Some want them expunged from the record books. Others, like Tony Kornheiser, want a special note on any Hall of Fame plaque, bringing into account the possibility (probability?) that said honored player partook of PED. My take is: […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
This week’s best-selling baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, January 23. Title Rank General Baseball Prospectus 2010 1 2010 Baseball Forecaster (Ron Shandler’s Baseball Forecaster) 2 Baseball America 2010 Prospect Handbook: The Comprehensive Guide to Rising Stars from the Definitive Source on Prospects (Baseball America Prospect Handbook) 3 Satchel: The Life and Times […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
A History and Analysis of Performance in the Major Leagues, 1876-2008, by Chris Jaffe (McFarland). A review of the book appears on Amazin’ Avenue (“an unofficial New York Mets blog”). Upshot: It all makes for a very interesting read, especially considering how tragically ignored managers are in most baseball literature and analysis. If the Mets […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
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
* Timing is everything
February 9, 2010 · 2 comments
Here’s to the Class of 2010. And I don’t mean the newest Hall of Famers. How cool is it that this year marks the release of biographies on some of the true icons of the game? The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron, by Howard Bryant The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End […]
Tagged as: Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Willie Mays
{ Comments on this entry are closed }