Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
The former manager died yesterday. The NY Times obituary by Bruce Weber put his age “in his early 80s.” Tanner, who led the Pittsburgh, Pirates to the world Championship in 1979, played for eight seasons with the Braves, Cubs, Indians, and Angels from 1955-62, compiling a .263 batting average, 21 homers, and 105 RBI, mostly […]
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The oldest baseball player died Tuesday at the age of 101. Malinosky played briefly for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1937.
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The author of My Life As a Fan and Baseball and Lesser Sports died earlier today at the age of 80. Sheed also collaborated on other baseball books, providing text for the 1990 publication book Face of Baseball and the foreword for a Kal Waggenheim biography on Roberto Clemente. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, author of Me and […]
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The hard-throwing reliever with the coke-bottle glasses died yesterday at the age of 81. Duren was an alcoholic. He attributed his wildness on the mound just as much to the booze as his poor eyesight. But he cleaned up his act and in later years worked as a substance abuse counselor and motivational speaker. He […]
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(and other media, of course.) With the close of 2010, I thought I take a few moments to review the highlights of the past 12 months as pertains to our favorite topic. It’s been a banner year for baseball biographies. We’ve enjoyed munch-anticipated titles from major publishers on Hall of Famers such as Hank Aaron, […]
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The year-end issue pays tribute to the sports figures who passed away in 2010. Baseball notables included Bob Feller, Ron Santo, Bobby Thomson, George Steinbrenner, Phil Cavarretta, Sparky Anderson, Robin Roberts, Gil McDougald, Willie Davis, Dorothy Kamenshek (All-American Girls Professional Baseball League), Bob Sheppard, Jose Lima, Jim Bibby, Ernie Harwell, Ralph Houk, and Mike Cuellar […]
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The legendary documentarian died this weekend at the age of 84. I met Greenspan in 2007 at a program hosted by the Yogi Berra Museum for the premier of his last major project, Pride Against Prejudice: The Larry Doby Story. He was already in failing health but wanted to be on hand out of respect […]
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I was looking for a computer disc to my digital tape recorder this morning. I recently got a new computer and was unable to find the software that would allow me to put up the audio interviews and update the podcasts when I came across a review I did on Bob Feller: Ace of the […]
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The pride of The Greatest Generation died yesterday at the age of 92. Feller was one of the bona fide star athletes who served with distinction in World War II, sacrificing prime seasons away from the game when they might have been able to find ways around the draft; Feller could easily have claimed status […]
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The popular Chicago Cubs and White Sox third baseman died Wednesday at the age of 70. At the heyday of my fanhood — 1969 — the Cubs were the hated enemy and Santo was the epitome of the arrogant, self-entitled rival, deeming the Mets unworthy to shine the shoes of the Chicagoans. But later in […]
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Unfortunately, one incident can define your life. Just ask Bill Buckner. Gil McDougald, who died Nov. 28 at the age of 82, was a solid player for the juggernaut Yankees teams of the 1950s, averaging 14 home runs, 76 RBIs, and .276/.356/.410 for 10 seasons. He was Rookie of the Year in 1951, a five-time […]
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Was it the “Hey, dad, you wanna have a catch?” ending of Field of Dreams… or Jimmy Morris giving his dad the ball for his Major League Debut in The Rookie? (Sorry, no video.) Or, coming from another angle, how about this from Fear Strikes Out, with its foreshadowing music, wide eyes, and guilt-inducing collapse […]
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The 16-year veteran died today at the age of 66. Here’s an obituary from the Los Angeles Times; Kirkpatrick played for the Angels from 1962-68. He also played for the Royals, Pirates, Rangers, and Brewers. In 1970 Topps inserted a mini-poster in each wax pack. I had all of them, as I also had the […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Nov. 5 at Noon. Title Rank General The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy 1 Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back, by Josh Hamilton and Tim Keown 2 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, […]
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That was quick, and perhaps for the best. “If it were done, when ’tis done, then twere well it were done quickly.”
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The former Dodger and Reds pitcher and Giants, Braves, and Yankees manager (62 games in 1982), died today at the age of 86. He published his memoirs — A King’s Legacy: The Clyde King Story — in 1999. This, strangely, is one of my favorite cards of King, taken back in the day when Topps […]
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You won’t find this particular Dick Williams on Baseball-Reference.com or in The Baseball Encyclopedia. This Dick Williams was a member of the Bombers, my team at Yankees Fantasy Camp just about a year ago. Yesterday I received the sad news that he had died at the age of 76 from a massive heart attack. Williams […]
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I was shocked this morning to hear the news of the passing of Bill Shannon, the long-time and popular official scorer and baseball historian, who died yesterday in a house fire in West Caldwell, a few miles over from my residence in Jersey. Shannon, 69, lived with his 92-year-old mother, who, fortunately, was rescued from […]
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Alex Anderson, Creator of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Dies at 90 I used to love this show, even if, as a kid in the 1960s, I didn’t always understand it (there was a lot of political Cold War humor to it). The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle were the ancestors of such contemporary pop culture faves […]
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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
“Quickie” publications
December 10, 2010
Not sure how I feel about these things. On the one hand, the technology is available so that it’s easy to turn books like these over quickly. On the other hand, is it an homage, or just a money grab? Newspapers (such as the San Francisco Chronicle, left) have managed fast turnarounds when their local […]
Tagged as: Ron Santo
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