Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Every Christmas you can count on a couple of celebrities to cast off this mortal coil. This time, sadly, it’s two of my favorite actors, Jack Klugman obit by Bruce Weber) and Charles Durning. One of Klugman’s signature roles was, of course, the sloppy sportswriter Oscar Madison in beloved TV series The Odd Couple, for […]
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What a shame. The former Cincinnati Reds pitcher was just 55. Pastore, who pitched the final year of his eight-year career with the Minnesota Twins, died on Monday from injuries sustained last month in a motorcycle accident. Following his retirement from baseball at the age of 28, Pastore became a popular Christian radio personality.
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Today’s newspapers are rife with news about the passing of Marvin Miller, who died yesterday at the age of 95. The pieces fall mostly into three general categories: straight-ahead obituaries, op-ed pieces discussing his importance to the sports world, and items on Miller’s continued snub for induction into baseball’s Hall of Fame, as exemplified in […]
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The man responsible — for better or worse — for the astronomical salaries baseball players receive these days, died this morning at the age of 95. He had been battling cancer for more than a year. Miller was one of the most powerful men in sports during his tenure as head of the players union. […]
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I remember him primarily as one of Gil Hodges’ coaches for the 1969 NY Mets. It’s sometimes hard to believe that these old men (Yost was just 41 when he joined the Mets) were young once and had pretty solid careers as players. Prior to becoming a coach, Yost enjoyed an 18-year career as a […]
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The Boston Red Sox legend died today at the age of 92. Pesky is a staple of any history on the team. He published Diary of a Red Sox Season in 2007 with Maureen Mullen and was the subject of Bil Nowlin’s Mr. Red Sox: The Johnny Pesky Story, in 2004. He was also one […]
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Probably only a few die-hard Dodger fans or baseball historians remember, but Ed Stevens was the man Jackie Robinson replaced when he joined Brooklyn in 1947. I think it’s kind of sad that that is how a person is remembered (Wally Pipp), but at least he is remembered As the New York Times‘ obituary by […]
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As if to prove the fragility of life, the news about Creamer comes just days after a belated literary birthday greetings. Creamer’s obit from The New York Times and by sportswriter/editor Jack McCallum.
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Davidson, a defensive end for the rough and tumble Oakland Raiders in the 1960s, passed away Monday at the age of 72. So what does the hulking football player have to do with baseball you ask? Well, after he left the game, he turned to acting (not unlike Merlin Olsen and Alex Karas). He appeared […]
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One of America’s best loved TV characters died today at the age of 86. This is why you never want to be the umpire: But what a great look back on small town youth baseball.
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A two-time player of the year in the All American Girls Professional Baseball League died yesterday. In addition to be a power hitter (she holds the single-season home run record with 12), she also pitched a perfect game and another no-hitter. From SABR.
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Speaking of Damn Yankees… The composer/lyricist responsible for such memorable songs as and “Heart” and “Whatever Lola Wants (Lola Gets)” from Damn Yankees died June 21 at the age of 90. Damn Yankees was based on the novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, by Douglass Wallop. Adler also worked on words and music […]
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The iconic artist passed away yesterday at the age of 91. I first “discovered” Neiman when I was pre-teen from This Great Game, a baseball coffee-table book which included several of his illustrations. He also did the artwork for a 2002 edition of Casey at The Bat. Neiman portrayed most of the star players over […]
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Artist Andy Jurinko loved baseball. He was especially enamored of players from what he considered a “Golden Era.” He published Heart Of The Game: An Illustrated Celebration Of The American League, 1946-1960 and 2004 and his new title, Golden Boys: Baseball Portraits, 1946-1960 was published posthumously. Jurinko died of pancreatic cancer in February 2011 at […]
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Man, these guys from my youth are going too fast. Boswell, who pitched primarily for the Twins in the 1960s, has died at the age of 67. Rob Neyer did a nice write-up on him on Baseball Nation. And more from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. This is how I remember Boswell:
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You might not be able to place the face or the name, but for anyone who grew up listening to a post-Mel Allen This Week in Baseball the voice sure is familiar. Fusselle, who had also been the play-by-play announcer for the Brooklyn Cyclones since their debut in 2001, died yesterday at the age of […]
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The world lost one of its greatest writers when Ray Bradbury passed away Tuesday at the age of 91. The author of such sci-fi classics as Fahrenheit 451, The Illustrated Man, and The Martian Chronicles, among many others, got his start with short stories such as “The Big Black and White Game,” which appeared in […]
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Because he might have kept Buzz Capra’s cap on his bookshelf. You know, like a hunting trophy. Borbon, a reliever for the Big Red Machine in the 1970s, died Monday at the age of 65. During the 1973 playoff brawl between his Reds and the New York Mets, Borbon sprinted in from the bullpen to […]
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is available on Amazon.com,
In my most recent "day job," I was the sports and features editor for a weekly New Jersey newspaper, where I hosted another blog. Busy, busy, busy.
I did a profile piece on the award-winning cartoonist Arnold Roth and he was nice enough to "immortalize" me.
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
Bits and pieces
August 30, 2012
Time for the occasional declutter of the accumulated links and stories, so here goes. “Dan Barry’s Bottom of the 33rd has won the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing, which honors a nonfiction book on the subject of sports.” More here. From the Yogi Berra Museum: Former Yankee star second baseman Bobby Richardson, a cornerstone […]
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