Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
The news that Tim Wakefield had died at the age of 57 from brain cancer was a shocker (the leaked info from Curt Schilling notwithstanding). I heard the sad tidings during the Mets game on Sunday. It never ceases to amaze me how “life goes on” after a few minutes of eulogizing. Back to the […]
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And another legend bites the dust. “Brooksie” passed away today at the age of 86. Here’s his obit from The Baltimore Sun by Mike Klingaman and The New York Times by Richard Goldstein. There was no “Mt. Rushmore” of third basemen; Robinson was ne plus ultra. There have been other great defensemen at his position, […]
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Unless you’re a Mets or Knicks fan, you might not know the nae. But Dennis D’Agostino was a vital cog to both teams, serving as a statistician long before computers were de rigueur. D’Agostino, who passed away last week at the age of 66, was author or co-author of three of my favorite baseball titles: […]
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Before Roger Craig was an innovative coach and manager, he was a pitcher for the fledgling New York Mets (and before that a Brooklyn Dodger) who led the NL in losses with 24 in 1962 and 22 the following year. He also pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals in ’64, the Cincinnati Reds in ’65, […]
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I was having coffee with Dave “No Relation” Kaplan yesterday. You may know him from as the former executive director of the Yogi Berra Museum and collaborator on several books with the late Hall of Famer. We were lamenting the passing of the stars from our younger days, such as Hank Aaron, Tom Seaver, […]
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More and more, it seems the players I grew up admiring as a teenager are shuffling off this mortal coil. This includes Hall of Famers, Greats, Near-Greats, and ordinary lunch bucket guys. The latest from that “generation” is Vida Blue, who passed away Saturday at the age of 73. Here’s his obituary by Alex Traub […]
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Even though I had been collecting a few cards in the mid 1960s, this is the one that stands out in my mind: Mike Shannon from the 1967 Topps set. Shannon, who was associated with the Cardinals for almost 60 years as a player and broadcaster, passed away Saturday at the age of 83. Here’s […]
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Dick Groat, an eight-time All-Star who won the NL MVP award in 1960 while playing shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates, died April 27 at the age of 92. Here’s his obituary by Richard Goldstein in The New York Times. (The Times piece notes he was a five-time All-Star, but I’m saying eight since they played […]
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The co-author of one of the best selling baseball books ever — The Science of Hitting — has died at the age of 88. Underwood collaborated with Ted Williams for this classic, which was first published more than 50 years ago. It has appeared on my Baseball Best Seller entries just about every week since […]
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A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes. (See my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks.”) In addition, occasionally […]
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Games are shorter by a good chunk, thanks to the speed-up rules now in place. MLB thinks that’s a good thing, but who are they trying to convince? “Real” baseball fans, IMO, don’t care about the length of the games. The longer the better (unless the weather is crappy). That’s what separates baseball from other […]
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The first thing you have to have is a catcher. Because if you don’t have a catcher, you’re going to have a lot of passed balls and you’re going to be chasing the ball back to the screen all day. Casey Stengel on the decision to make Hobie Landrith the expansion New York Mets first […]
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Not a ballplayer, manager, or coach. But the actor, who died at the age of 81 on Saturday, played a famous figure in Major League history. Or rather infamous. Learner portrayed the gambler Arnold Rothstein in the 1988 feature film, Eight Men Out. Here’s his obituary from The New York Times by Lauren McCarthy.
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It’s been a tough week. We lost three former players, each of whom were icons in their own right. On February 28, Jean Faut, a star pitcher in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, died at the age of 98. From The New York Times‘ obit by Richard Sandomir: Over eight seasons, the right-handed Faut […]
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I have a soft spot for players with extra longevity. Tim McCarver enjoyed a 21-year career. And while others have been around longer, he managed to do it over four decades, so extra points. Sadly, he passed away today at the age of 81. McCarver began his career as a 17-year-old (!) with the St. […]
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It’s been a rough couple of weeks. We lost four players, three of whom were from my own “golden age” of fandom. Frank Thomas (died at age 93 on Jan. 16) was one of the few bright spots for the 1962 Mets, clubbing 34 home runs, a mark that stood until Dave Kingman’s 36 in […]
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I’ve been posting a lot of these over the years (more than 300, but, sorry to say, I missed a few along the way), but MLB.com has put together a nice list of baseball figures who passed away over the course of the year, including: Roger Angel Tommy Davis Jeremy Giambi Hector Lopez Gaylord Perry […]
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The only pitcher in Reds history to throw a perfect game passed away unexpectedly yesterday at the age of 62. Browning spent 12 years in the majors, all but one with the Reds before his finale with the Kansas City Royals. He finished with a record of 123-90 and led the NL in starts for […]
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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
