Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
It’s no secret that newspapers are in a bad way. That includes the sports department, and by extension, baseball writers. Some publications have cut staff, others cutting back by sending writers on fewer road trips, opting to take stories from other sources. Techdirt ran this piece on the situation, referring to this article from The […]
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That’s the date the Selena Roberts book on Alex Rodriguez is due out. Judging by the AP item, it’s like a run-down play: …Roberts’ unauthorized A-Rod was originally planned for May, then was moved up to mid-April after Roberts, a Sports Illustrated reporter, broke the news that the Yankees slugger had tested positive for steroids […]
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I hope this article from The Wall Street Journal isn’t too prophetic as it warns of newspapers’ shrinking presence in the press box. A few years back, I worked as a part-time reporter for STATS at Mets and Yankees home games. It was a kick, having my own seat in the box, chatting with “real” […]
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The back page of The New York Times Book Review features a full page advertisement from Bauman Rare Books. I usually don’t pay attention because as much as I lvoe ’em, they’re out of my league, to borrow from a famous title. But a photo of Joe DiMaggio caught my eye and sure enough there […]
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Scroll down yesterday’s post on Odd Man Out to read the excellent comments to date. For more, visit The Perpetual Post.
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Dermont McEvoy of Publishers Weekly published the magazine’s annual baseball roundup. No surprise, but this year’s selections are heavy on the “bad boy” books, including Selena Robert’s A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez (April, Harper Collins). PW contacted Roberts’s editor at HarperCollins, senior v-p/ executive editor David Hirshey. Hirshey, who in the past has […]
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According to an item in Publishers Weekly daily email, there will be a new sports-heavy imprint launching this spring. MVP Books, an imprint of Quayside Publishing Group, will specialize in “distinctive, high-quality books for the sports enthusiast,” with both illustrated coffeetable books and narrative nonfiction in a hardcover format. The MVP titles to hit the […]
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Most of the annual previews are available as of this writing. I previously analyzed Beckett’s; here a more comprehensive look at the four I’ve purchased to date. Back in the day, the publisher printed only one cover. Now it’s easy to make one for every team or region. The examples here are for the New […]
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From our friend Greg Spira comes this link to LibraryJournal.com’s annual baseball feature. Among the usual share of biographies and memoirs, histories, and social commentaries are such themes as: Yet another biography about Yogi Berra, this one by homonymic author Allen Barra, and one on Walter O’Malley by Michael D’Antonio Ira Berkow’s bio of Lou […]
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The Bookshelf is interested in all aspects of the field: writers, publishers, and those who are the last stop on the way to getting those materials into our hands. Not all of it comes from large retails outlets. In fact, some of the more interesting outlets are small merchants with a love for their product. […]
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The American Library Association recently named Kadir Nelson winner of the Coretta Scott King Award for best author for We Are the Ship, the story of Negro leagues baseball from its beginnings in the 1920s through its decline after Jackie Robinson crossed over to the majors in 1947. “Using an ‘Everyman’ player as his narrator, […]
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In light of Joe Torre’s new book, the Yankees are considering a non-disparagement clause in their employee contracts. According to a Newsday article by Wallace Mathews, “The Yankees are said to feel betrayed by Torre’s book, which has been interpreted as critical of some players, most notably Alex Rodriguez, and inaccurate in its recounting of […]
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Been receiving some publisher’s catalogs recently. Here are a few 2009 titles to look forward to: >> As mentioned previously, Joe Torre and Tom Verducci have collaborated on the manager’s autobio, coming next month from Random House. >> Bloomsbury will release a behind-the-scenes look at the machinations of baseball’s Valhalla in Cooperstown Confidential: Heroes, Rogues, […]
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Stealing an idea from ESPN the Magazine (and others, no doubt). Took my math-challenged mind awhile to figure out that W2W4 means “what to watch for.” Duh. Anyway, the always-informative BizofBaseball.com offers this list of ten stories to watch for in 2009, including: The economy Credit Digital media rights Cubs sale New stadia Ticket discounting/price […]
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MLB Network will be hungry for content until the season opens. One wonders why they didn’t wait until at least Spring Training — if not opening day — to launch. I guess they wanted to start building their audience early. I watched a little but last night, mostly previews of what is to come. Among […]
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From the Advertising Age website, this item about new features from ESPN.com that will no doubt extend the time sports fans stay on the site to 26 hours a day. Beginning in summer 2009, the Walt Disney Co. sports-entertainment network will offer three new iTV products, tentatively titled ESPN My Vote, ESPN In Game Extra […]
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According to this item from the daily Publishers Weekly e-mail. Why is this significant? Both companies have put out several baseball titles over the last few years. Sourcebooks titles include: Do You Know the New York Yankees?: Test your expertise with these fastball questions (and a few curves) about your favorite team’s hurlers, sluggers, stats […]
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It’s quite appropriate that baseball’s winter meetings are held around the holidays. If your team’s front office guys are good, you can get a swell present of a 40-home run slugger or Cy Young-caliber pitcher. Or you can get a lump of coal. It’s way too early to report on anything major, so in the […]
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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
* Welcome to the club
April 30, 2009
I always enjoy finding pieces on baseball lit from unexpected sources. Here’s one more. The question stemmed from a previous entry on the Alyssa Milano book.
Tagged as: baseball books
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