Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
From The New York Times by Richard Sandomir: Bruce Froemming, an authoritative, sometimes brusque but widely respected umpire who called the third-most games in Major League Baseball history, including four no-hitters from behind home plate, died on Feb. 25 in Milwaukee. He was 86. Unfortunately, Froemming — who umped more than 5,100 games over 37 […]
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Which used to be code for “it must be true.” This is why you have to read until the end of the article. “Trump Has Lost Touch with Reality,” a “conversation” between Frank Bruni and Bret Stephens in an opinion piece in today’s print edition of The New York Times, concludes with a tribute to […]
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Is there any “ordinary” player in the history of the game who became a legend overnight like Bill Mazeroski? Any fan worth their salt knows that “Maz” hit the home run in the bottom of the ninth in Game Seven of the 1960 Fall Classic against the New York Yankees to give his Pittsburgh Pirates […]
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What is going on these days? So many legendary figures passing away. I guess it’s inevitable. The heroes of our younger days have grown older and death comes to us all. While neither Jesse Jackson nor Robert Duvall were directly associated with baseball, they both had seminal if ancillary moments around the national pastime. Jesse […]
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The relief hurler who won 18 games and saved another ten for the 1959 Pittsburgh Pirates, died February 12 at the age of 97. Here’s his obituary from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and The New York Times by Richard Goldstein. ElRoy Face got a relatively late start: he made his debut as a 25-year-old in 1953. After spending […]
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The author of such books as The As: A Baseball History; The Athletics of Philadelphia: Connie Mack’s White Elephants, 1901-1954; A Tiger in His Time: Hal Newhouser and the Burden of Wartime Ball; and Pete Rose: A Biography, died January 24 at the age of 91. From his obituary in the Philadelphia Inquirer: [Jordan] was fanatical […]
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The MVP of the 1968 World Series passed away February 4 at the age of 85. Lolich went 217-191 over a 16-year career, spent mostly with the Detroit Tigers. In their World Championship season he was “only” 17-9,pitching behind Denny McLain’s 31-win campaign. He won 20 twice, including a league-leading 25 victories in 1970. Lolich […]
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To paraphrase Hamlet, we will not see his like again. If ever there was a modern day workhorse, it was Wilbur Wood, who passed away on January 17. The hefty lefty knuckleballer pitched for 17 years, amassing a record of 163-153. But he won 20 or more games for four straight seasons (1971-74) with the […]
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Victor Conte, who sold undetectable steroids to elite athletes in baseball and track, has died at 75.
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Sad news about the passing of Robert Redford, who died this morning at the age of 89. Here’s the obituary from The New York Times. Of course, for baseball fans, Redford was best remembered for his role as Roy Hobbs in the screen version of The Natural. He also served as the narrator for The Glove, a […]
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Davey Johnson, who led the 1986 Mets to a World Championship, died Sept. 5 at the age of 82. Here’s his obituary from The New York Times by Bruce Weber. Johnson, who also managed the , was a pretty good player, making a name for himself with the successful Baltimore Orioles of the mid-1960s to early […]
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The Native American actor know for his roles in Dances with Wolves and The Green Mile passed away September 1 at the age of 73. Here’s his obituary in The New York Times. His baseball connection? He appeared as the ghost of a ballplayer in the 1993 TV movie Cooperstown, written by Lee Blessing and directed […]
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Doug Glanville published The Game from Where I Stand: A Ballplayer’s Inside View back in 2010. Hard to believe but it’s been fifteen years since I had him on as a guest for an early version of The Bookshelf Conversations. Glanville, who played for the Phillies, Cubs, and Rangers over a nine-year career, became an […]
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Saddened to hear about the passing on Monday of Ryne Sandberg at the age of just 65. After making his debut for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1981, Sandberg spent the next 15 years with the Chicago Cubs, where he became a 10-time All-Star with nine Gold Gloves seven Silver Slugger Awards and the NL MVP […]
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The Hall of Fame outfielder who spent most of his illustrious career with the Pittsburgh Pirates died on June 28 at the age of 74. Parker, who had been suffering from Parkinson’s for more than a decade, also spent time with the Reds, Athletics, Brewers, Angels, and Blue Jays during his 19 big league seasons. […]
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Shocked to learn of the passing of baseball writer Scott Miller, who recently died at the age of 62 following a battle with cancer. Miller released the excellent book, Skipper: Why Baseball Managers Matter and Always Will, in May. I reviewed it on Bookreporter.com. I am sorry to have missed the opportunity to have him […]
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See below for an update. A post on Facebook reminded me that Moe Berg, one of the most interesting characters to ever don spikes, died on this date in 1972. The number of languages Berg could speak varied. Casey Stengel once supposedly, “He can speak seven languages but can’t hit in any of ’em.” […]
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“Norm” from Cheers passed away yesterday at the age of 76. Here’s his obit from The New York Times. Wendt, who was born in Chicago, was a hard-core White Sox fan, even if he did throw out a first pitch first-pitch came in a Rays jersey. He got to play some ball in the 1986 movie, […]
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The actor who played the title role in the Dennis the Menace TV show (1959-1963), passed away yesterday at the age of 73. Here’s his obituary from The New York Times. The baseball connection? An episode from the third season featuring none other than Sandy Koufax in “Dennis and the Dodger.” Despite his reputation as […]
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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
