Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
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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From the Jan. 4 online edition of the Loveland, CO, Reporter-Herald: With the recent success of the Colorado Rockies, baseball in Colorado has gained a new level of interest and popularity. Yet, unbeknownst to many, baseball statewide achieved a high level of competitiveness as far back as the 1920s, at least at minor league levels. […]
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According to a story in the Chicago Sun Times, the Cubs have received permission from the City Council to add 70 “premium-priced ‘bullpen box seats’ along the third base line at Wrigley Field — and install new signage — to wring more revenue out of the 93-year-old ballpark.” City Hall approved the changes because “landmark […]
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In response to a recent entry on artist Kadir Nelson’s We Are the Ship, Bob Kendrick of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, wanted readers of the Bookshelf to know that the museum will display a number of the original paintings used to illustrate the book in an exhibit beginning January 26, […]
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Don’t you just love the Internet? It’s filled with all sorts of treasure. The latest nugget I’ve found is from Manybooks.net, a site for free e-books, available via download for several platforms, which include some rare baseball titles: The High School Pitcher, by H. Irving Hancock The Red Headed Outfield and Other Stories (1920) and […]
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Guest host Frank Deford of Sports Illustrated and HBO talks to former MLB Commissioner Fay Vincent and author Leigh Montville about Babe Ruth and the history of baseball. Vincent also appeared on Rose in 2004 with SI writer Tom Verducci to discuss another Rose: Pete.
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The March 30, 1925 issue of Time magazine featured the first occasion in which baseball was treated as a cover feature. The article regarded the rookie season of future Hall of Famer George Sisler. It’s always interesting to see how language — especially written — was treated in past generations. Before television, and even before […]
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Some books about the teams in the League Championship Series to browse through while you’re waiting for those interminable changes. These are by no means the only or best titles, just general, all-purpose suggestions. As an aside, It’s interesting to note that the ALCS features two of the original teams, while the NLCS has two […]
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Most on-line editions of print magazines have a search component. Some offer full-text versions of their articles, while others (the mean ones) only post abstracts, requiring the curious to either pay for a subscription (either full or “web-only”) or the individual item. I’ve done some preliminary research and will be posting the results from time […]
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From the Oct. 11 New York Times, George Vescey’s “Red Sox in the Sky With Diamonds.” The original The “new and improved” version See the “who’s who” here
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From the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, an extensive interview with the artists James Bassler, son of major leaguer catcher Johnny Bassler who played from 1913-14 with the Cleveland Naps and, after a seven year absence, returned for another seven years with the Detroit Tigers (1921-27). He compiled a lifetime .304 batting average with a […]
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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
