Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
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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The lefty ace for the Philadelphia Phillies “Whiz Kids” in 1950 passed away yesterday at the age of 93. He had been the last surviving member of that team following the death of fellow hurler Bob Miller, 94, in 2020. Here’s his obit by Richard Goldstein in The New York Times and Frank Fitzpatrick in […]
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The young man who caught Roger Maris’ iconic 61st home run in 1961 died as an old man of 81 in 2022. He passed away last Thursday. From today’s New York Times obituary by Richard Sandomir On that fall afternoon, Maris was tied with Babe Ruth for the single-season major league record of 60 home […]
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The Hall of Famer died yesterday at the age of 84. Perry pitched for eight teams during his 22-year career in which he pitched 5,350 innings, winning 314 wins while striking out 3,534. But, as The New York Times‘ Richard Goldstein writes in the obituary, “he’s remembered as much for his acknowledged spitball, with saliva […]
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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. In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast […]
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Yes, the legendary baseball writer for The New Yorker died last May, but Nicholas Dawidoff (The Catcher Was a Spy, The Crowd Sounds Happy, Baseball: A Literary Anthology) pays tribute in this recent posting on The Atlantic. deeming Angell to be “the finest writer ever to turn his consistent attention to baseball.” Why this piece […]
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An original member of the Florida Marlins, with whom he led the NL in stolen base leader in 1993, Chuck Carr recently passed away at the age of 55. He had been battling health problems according to family members. Carr made his major league debut with the New York Mets in 1990. In additional to […]
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The pioneering journalist broke barriers when it came to women entering the locker room. Gross passed away Nov. 9 at the age of 75. In the obituary from The New York Times, Richard Sandomir wrote,” In 2018, when she received an award from the Association for Women in Sports Media, Ms. Gross recalled the indignities she […]
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I was reading Ira Berkow’s new book, Baseball’s Best Ever: A Half Century of Covering Hall of Famers, in preparation for a Bookshelf Conversation and came across an article about Bruce Sutter, who died last Thursday at the age of 69. Many of the ballplayers featured in the book are no longer with us, but it […]
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Wow, has it really been that long since my last entry? Recently underwent another surgery, so that’s kept me on the bench for a while. But in the days and weeks ahead, look for a bunch of Bookshelf Conversations and other news as I try to make up for lost time. We begin with the […]
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There is little that I can offer that would be as eloquent as what others have said and written about the legendary broadcaster who passed away Tuesday at the age of 94. From what I know, Scully was a modest person and a real mensch. He declined to tell his own story and was almost […]
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The venerable actor who often played on both sides of the law passed away yesterday at the age of 83. Not mentioned among his many credits in The New York Times‘ obituary were his two baseball roles: Milwaukee Brewers a fictional manager Gus Panas in the 2004 feature film Mr. 3000 starring the late Bernie […]
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Dead at 94. His portrait of Joe DiMaggio has appeared in numerous books about baseball art, including the cover of From The New York Times obituary by Richard Sandomir …Mr. Dinnerstein largely depicted the life around him: on the subway, in parks, outside brownstones like his own in Brooklyn. In a rare foray into portraying […]
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Meant to post this a while back. The actor famed for, among other roles, his rendition of Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams died last week at the age of 67. There have been complaints about the casting of and portrayal by Liotta as the shamed Black Sox outfielder. For one thing, there was […]
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The softball legend who once struck out Ted Williams in an exhibition appearance, died March 26 at the age of 81. Unfortunately, no video exists for that event. Today it would be all over the internet. According to the obituary in today’s New York Times, For 10 to 15 minutes, Williams, a left-handed hitter, swung […]
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AKA, the original Mr. Met. Reilly passed away last Dec. 30 at the age of 83. According to the obituary in Jan. 7 issue of The New York Times by Richard Sandomir Mr. Reilly was working in the Mets’ ticket office when two team executives asked him to breathe corporeal life into Mr. Met, who […]
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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
