Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Time to play catch-up: From a rival site about baseball book reviews, this piece on Hammerin’ Hank, George Almighty and The Say Hey Kid (another of those books that uses words like “greatest” and “forever” in its title). An oldie, but good: this review of The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, by Douglass Wallop, […]
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in 1923, Babe Ruth hits the first home run at Yankee Stadium’s opening in front of over 72,000 fans. The two-run shot off Red Sox hurler Howard Ehmke helps beat Boston, 4-1. The ballpark cost $2.5 million, the price of a lousy utility player these days. With the closing of the ballpark after this season, […]
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in 1955, Chuck Tanner hits a home run in his first major league at bat for the Milwaukee Braves. He would have another 20 in his eight-season playing career. (Thanks, NationalPastime.com.) His son, Bruce, pitched in 10 games for the White Sox in 1985. Seems like he could have used him over in Pittsburgh, where […]
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In 1913, in a game which features President Woodrow Wilson throwing out the first pitch, Washington’s Walter Johnson gives up an unearned run in the first inning of the home opener but will not yield another for 56 innings. The Senators beat the Yankees, 2-1. (Thanks to NationalPastime.com.)
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In 1969, the Seattle Pilots score all of their runs in the first inning to win their major league debut over the Angels, 4-3. See the table of contents here. More about the book.
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There’s a lot of material that’s fallen by the wayside as I try to keep this blog fresh with the latest in baseball book publishing information. But in the words of the revered philosopher, Regis Philbin, “I’m only one man!” So I’m using this space to try to catch up. Some of the items might […]
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in 1969, Ted Williams makes his managerial debut in front of President Nixon and a crowd of 45,000 at Washington’s RFK Stadium. ‘Tricky Dick’s’ Senators are defeated by the Yankees, 8-4. (Thanks nationalpastime.com) Williams was the subject of a 1970 book, What a Baseball Manager Does, by Roy Hoopes.
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You know you’ve made it when your book appears in a Sunday Times review. In fact, I wonder if there have been studies that have quantified in cold numbers what such an “endorsement” means for sales. One quibble: Olney, a sports writer for the Times and an ESPN commentator, spends too much time talking about […]
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The North County Times of California published this review/profile on the new autobiography of Jerry Coleman. Ted Williams got the major press for serving in both WWII and the Korean War, but Coleman, the second baseman for the New York Yankees during their post-war juggernaut run, was right there, too. After his playing career, he […]
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The Story of Take Me Out to the Ball Game by Andy Strasberg, Bob Thompson, and Tim Wiles. Hal Leonard, 2008. This year marks the centennial of what baseball fans believe to be the true “national anthem” and this trio of authors have done the ditty proud. Baseball’s Greatest Hit is an “everything you always […]
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…in 1978, the A’s end the fifteen-year career of Dick Allen by releasing the aging superstar. The Wampum, Pennsylvania native finishes his stormy relationship with major league baseball with 351 homers, 1,192 RBIs and .292 batting average. (Thanks to NationalPastime.com.) The Amazon Report on Richie Allen: Crash: The Life and Times of Dick Allen September […]
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in 1973, the Braves release former 30-game winner Denny McLain two days before his 29th birthday. In a career which spanned ten years, McLain compiled a 131-92 record with an ERA of 3.39. I Told You I Wasn’t Perfect In 1982, the Mariners sign 43-year old Gaylord Perry to a one-year contract. The ‘Ancient Mariner’ […]
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(Because you can put the souvenir postcards of the plaques on a bookshelf.) For the first time ever, the Hall of Fame plaques of Larry Doby and Jackie Robinson will leave their home in Cooperstown, as the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will travel the plaques to Memphis, Tenn., this weekend for a […]
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in 1957, Yankee manager Casey Stengel is arrested and is released on $50 bail after he allegedly curses at and kicks a newspaper photographer during an exhibition game in St. Petersburg. (Thanks to NationalPastime.com.) So what did the stunned shutterbug say to Stengel? Now wait a minute, Casey!
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Baseball’s real anthem celebrates its centennial this year, a fact marked by the new book, Baseball’s Greatest Hit: The Story of Take Me Out to the Ball Game, by Tim Wiles, Andy Strasberg and Bob Thomson as well as Allen Barra’s March 22 story in The Wall Street Journal.
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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
* Why baseball matters
April 9, 2008
This piece from whom I assume is a student at Indiana State University about a recent experience at a conference on baseball literature. Upshot: Because I never saw Mantle run out an infield single, witnessed the smooth stroke of Stan Musial or was ever awed by Brooks Robinson stabbing down a frozen rope on the […]
Tagged as: baseball literaure
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