Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
I said it for years: When Bill Buckner died, the first line in his obituary would be about the error he made in Game Six. And sure enough, via The New York Times obituary by Daniel E. Slotnick, “Bill Buckner, All-Star Shadowed by World Series Error, Dies at 69.” Other media outlets used similar headlines […]
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I didn’t want to post these yesterday, given that Memorial Day should have a lock on “lest we forget,” at least on May 31st. I was saddened by the news that Rob Edelman, 70, passed away last week. He combined two of my favorite things — the national pastime and cinema — in one of […]
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The legendary actor/singer passed away yesterday at the age of 97. Baseball connections? She played Aimee Alexander, wife to the Hall of Fame pitcher, Grover Cleveland (played by Ronald Reagan), in the 1951 biopic, The Winning Team. Then there was this classic scene in the 1962 classic, That Touch of Mink… Here’s a behind-the-scenes clip […]
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Headnote: 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 writing one). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes. In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast one […]
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Several savvy readers contacted me to inform that there are a few other “Boys of Summer” left in addition to Sandy Koufax and Bob Aspromonte, as I wrote in tributes to Don Newcombe and Randy Jackson, both of whom passed away over the past few weeks. These include Carl Erskine, 92, another mainstay of the […]
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Last month, I posted about the passing of Don Newcombe, a mainstay of the Brooklyn Dodgers’ pitching staff. In the entry, I remarked that there were only a few left from the fabled “Boys of Summer.” That number was reduced by one with the passing of Randy Jackson, who died Wednesday at the age of […]
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The NY Times‘ Richard Goldstein wrote the full obituary for Don Newcombe for today’s print edition. Depending on how you define who was a member of the “Boys of Summer,” a term used by Roger Kahn in his excellent 1972 book, there are still a handful left from that 1956 team for which Newcombe won […]
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We lost another one of the Boys of Summer with the passing today of Don Newcombe, 92. Here’s a brief AP obit which was posted on The New York Times‘ website a few minutes ago. And one from ESPN. I’m sure the media will offer their own tributes later today or tomorrow.
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The Hall of Famer and the first African-American manager in the game passed away today at the age of 83. Here’s his obituary from The New York Times by Richard Goldstein. I had the chance to meet Robinson when he was manager of the Montreal Expos at the time it was thought they might be […]
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Because, as a reminder, you can keep baseball cards on your bookshelf. Bob Friend, a good pitcher on a number of bad teams (big league mark, 197-230), was found dead on Sunday at his home in O’Hara Township, Pa., as per his obituary by Richard Goldstein in today’s New York Times. He was 88. The […]
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Penny Marshall, the co-star of the popular sitcom Laverne and Shirley and director of the iconic baseball film A League of Their Own, has died at the age of 75. Marshall, who appeared on The Odd Couple as sportswriter Oscar Madison’s long-suffering secretary, Myrna Turner, also directed one episode of the short-lived TV series based on […]
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I must admit, I had never heard of the late Tom Clark. When I was googling “Neil Simon and baseball” for an entry on the late playwright, Clark’s name popped up in the results; his obituary — written by Richard Sandomir — must have appeared on the same date as Simon. The piece was published […]
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Both gave inaccurate accounts of what happened during a ballgame. Neil Simon, one of the great playwrights of our time, passed away yesterday at the age of 91. His baseball connection? This scene from the film version of The Odd Couple, which was released in 1968. By the way, that play was pure fiction: the […]
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Tab who? Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, MO. Hunter, a heartthrob in the 1950s and 60s, played the character of Joe Hardy in Damn Yankees, one of the great musicals of all time. Of course, Hunter, who died on Sunday at the age of 86, played in many other movies, but for the purposes of this […]
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Hall published two baseball titles which what I would classify as “quiet classics,” in that they never created as much buzz as something like, say, Moneyball or The Glory of Their Times. He passed away on Saturday at the age of 89. Here’s his obit from The New York Times. Perhaps his best known was […]
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The baseball lifer, who spent 76 years in the game — 67 with the St. Louis Cardinals — died yesterday at the age of 95. He had been the oldest living Hall of Famer. He was the subject of several books, including The Red Schoendienst Story (1961, by Gene Schoor); The Man Who Fought Back (1962, […]
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So this is the way it’s going to be, I guess. The stars and favorites from my youth are of an age where their passing is not uncommon and therefore should not be shocking. But it is shocking and serves as an unwelcome reminder that my contemporaries are getting older, too. Rusty Staub is the […]
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The literal “port laureate” of baseball passed away yesterday at the age of 84. Nicknamed “The Glider,” Ed Charles got a relatively late start, making his debut with the Kansas City Athletics in 1962 at the age of 29. He was traded to the Mets in 1967. As a fan of the team, I rooted […]
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One of my favorite shows of all times was M*A*S*H. Some of the earlier episodes don’t hold up so well, but one which sticks out is “A War for All Seasons.” Why, you may ask? Because baseball. Stiers — who passed away last Saturday at the age of 75 — played the imperious Major Charles […]
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How would you like it if as a ballplayer the main reason your obituary was noteworthy was because you seriously injured someone during a game? Well, there are those who think it wouldn’t matter to you because you are, you know, dead. But I’m guessing if Jack Hamilton had not inadvertently beaned Tony Conigliaro, the […]
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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
