Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
In 1951, the Dodgers sign a 21-year lease with the City of Vero Beach for use of their spring training site. That arrangement ended this spring. (Thanks to nationalpastime.com) The Amazon Report on Dodgertown: The Rise and Fall of Dodgertown: 60 Years of Baseball in Vero Beach Dodgertown (CA) (Images of Baseball)
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in 1954, the Baltimore Orioles purchase the contract of first baseman Eddie Waitkus from the Philadelphia Phillies. Waitkus was the player shot by a stalker fan and the supposed inspiration for Bernard Malamud’s The Natural. The Amazon Report for Eddie Waitkus: Baseball’s Natural: The Story of Eddie Waitkus
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From the Adam’s Life blog, an unusual connection between baseball and the antithesis of the national pastime.
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Bob Uecker, the Brewers’ TV/radio play-by-play announcer, is chosen for induction into the broadcasters’ wing of the Hall of Fame as the recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award in 2003. The 68-year-old former back-up catcher, who joined the Milwaukee broadcast crew in 1971, is best known for the humor he has brought to the […]
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in 1933, Rogers Hornsby returns to the Cardinals as a player after a six year absence (thanks to NationalPastime.com). Hornsby was not one of your happy, shining people. His reputation as a misanthrope preceded him, yet he was able to find a job because he was such an astute baseball ma who batted over .400 […]
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in 1995, Michael Jordan decides he might have made a mistake when he quit basketball at the height of his game to try his hand at baseball. He took advantage of the labor unrest to announce his plan to give up the diamond for the hardwood. The Amazon Report: Rookie: When Michael Jordan Came to […]
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In 1941, ‘Losing Pitcher’ Hugh Mulcahy of the Phillies becomes the first major league player to be drafted into the Armed Forces. The newest member of the 101st Artillery at Cape Cod’s Camp Edwards on had lost 22 games last season and 20 in 1938 to lead the National League in defeats both years. (Thanks […]
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Former Pirate second baseman Bill Mazeroski is elected by the Veterans’ Committee into the Hall of Fame along. His walk-off home run in the 1960 World Series is still ranked as one of the most dramatic moments in the game. (Thanks to NationalPastime.com.) The Amazon Report: Twin Killing: The Bill Mazeroski Story
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in 1912, Charles Ebbets breaks ground for his team’s new ballpark in the Pigtown section of Brooklyn. The Dodgers new home will be named for its owner after a reporter at the ceremony suggests the idea to Charley. (Thanks to Nationalpastime.com.) The Amazon Report: Hit Sign, Win Suit: An Irishman’s Tribute to Ebbets Field Greatest […]
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In this 2002 article from Reason.com, we learn how the decision by the communist dictator to step down might open the door for baseball scholarship. According to the piece by Matt Welch, Cuban national Severo Nieto basically invented Cuban baseball research in 1955 when he co-authored the country’s first-ever baseball encyclopedia, laboriously reconstructing the statistical […]
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Peter Uberroth replaces Bowie Kuhn as baseball’s commissioner, the sixth since the office was instituted following the Black Sox Scandal. What follows is a review I wrote for the SABR Bibliography Committee newsletter in 1999 following the release of Jerome Holtzman’s The Commissioners. * * * Holtzman, one of baseball’s premier sportswriters of our time, […]
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Born this day in 1860, Ward formed The Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players, the first players union, in 1885 and sought to fight the reserve clause that bound a player to his team in perpetuity. If some of today’s modern athletes don’t know about the contributions of Jackie Robinson (and when I say “some […]
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A review of Andrew Schiff’s new book on Henry Chadwick from Bleacherreport.com. Upshot: Even though I consider myself a devoted student of baseball history and lore, I didn’t know very much about Harry Chadwick and everything he meant to the game I love. But thanks to Andrew Schiff and his wonderful biography, I do now. […]
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From YouTube, clips from Lawrence Ritter’s interviews with “Wahoo” Sam Crawford, Hans Lobert, and Jimmy Austin from his 1966 classic The Glory of Their Times. The video also features the voices of Ty Cobb and Cy Young.
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An interview by GOTT author Lawrence Ritter with Fred Snodgrass, presented in a slide show backed nicely with Scott Joplin music.
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With the Academy Awards on the horizon, I thought it would be appropriate to mention some of the excellent books that discuss the twin American treasures of baseball and the movies. Baseball and the movies are like peanut butter and chocolate: they were meant to go together. Baseball is the eternal struggle of man seeking […]
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Editor Ron Briley is seeking manuscripts for an anthology on “Baseball and Politics” to be published by McFarland & Company. The recent front page newspaper coverage of the Barry Bonds indictment for perjury indicates that the interest in and impact of baseball extends well beyond the playing field. This collection will focus upon the intersection […]
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The CASEY Award was inaugurated in 1983 by Mike Shannon and W.J. Harrison, the editors and co-founders of Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine, to honor the authors and publishers of outstanding baseball books, a heretofore unrealized notion. Seven books were named as finalists for the first CASEY: Baseball’s Greatest Experiment, The Celebrant, Hoopla, Invisible Men, […]
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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
* The Sports Illustrated "Vault": An early appraisal
March 22, 2008
Sports Illustrated launched its new digital archive earlier this week. After a quick glance, and realizing it’s still in beta, I have mixed feelings. Bear in mind I’m only talking about the baseball here, but I’m assuming the same applies for everything else. As of today, there are 14,985 articles, 3,750 pictures, 69 “galleries” (photo […]
Tagged as: archives baseball research, SI, Sports Illustrated Vault
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