Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
(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 top baseball books, according to Amazon.com, as of Friday, Dec. 17 at 1 p.m. Title Rank General The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy 1 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis 2 Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back, by Josh […]
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Kirkus Reviews just posted several “tops” lists, including two baseball titles. Jane Leavy’s The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood is among the top biographies of 2010. Dan Epstein’s Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging ’70s has been deemed as one of […]
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A whole bunch today, beginning with Fergie Jenkins, the Hall of Fame pitcher, who turns 68. You often read about how dark-skinned Hispanics players such as Robert Clemente or Vic Power were amazed by the prejudice they encountered in the 1950s and 1960s, coming from countries where none existed. I wonder how Jenkins felt, coming […]
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TIME magazine published its top 10 list of everything this year, including sports. Baseball is at the top of the top: Baseball’s Imperfect Game (no further explanation needed) LeBron’s Bad Decision (no further explanation needed) A College Basketball Cinderella Comes Oh So Close (Butler vs. Duke) Football Uses Its Head (concussions) Ghana’s World Cup Giveaway […]
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One of my favorite off-beat baseball sites is Craig Robinson’s Flip Flop Flyball. (I wrote about Robinson and his work awhile back.) Rather than the usual staid numbers, Robinson — a graphic artist originally from Great Britain — takes unusual items and turns them into colorful graphic representations. Among the topics he’s considered on the […]
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When I play ball, most of my teammates call me Ronnie. When I was in college, they called me Kap, a take-off on my name coupled with the Kangolish-type of headgear I always wore (at camp in the Laurentian Mountains, they called me Casquette for the same reason). When I look for those literary birthday […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Dec. 3 at 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 with Tim Keown 2 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by […]
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The publishers of American History magazine just came out with 100 Greatest Sports Movies (and you know how I feel about the use of “Greatest” and “Best” in the title). Extracting just the baseball films, we have, in order: The Pride of the Yankees (#4 overall) Bull Durham (#6) Major League (#12) A League of […]
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The holidays start early this year — Hanukka begins Dec. 1 — so the folks over at StrikeThree have compiled this handy list of baseball titles. No reviews, just links to Amazon, but it’s nice to have them all in one place for the sake of convenience. Speaking of gifts, a few months ago, I […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Nov. 19 at 10 a.m. 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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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Nov. 12 at 2 p.m. 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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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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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Oct. 30 at 1 p.m. 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 […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of 10 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 22. 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 2 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of 10 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 8. Title Rank General The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy 1 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis 2 Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu: John Updike on Ted Williams, […]
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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
Readers, take “note”
December 8, 2010
Three baseball entries are among the non-fiction titles on The New York Times as “100 Notable Books of 2010.” THE LAST BOY: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood. By Jane Leavy. (Harper/HarperCollins, $27.99.) Many biographies of Mantle have been written, but Leavy connects the dots in new and disturbing ways. THE LAST HERO: […]
Tagged as: Hank Aaron, Howard Bryant, James Hirsch, Jane Leavy, Mickey Mantle, New York Times, Willie Mays
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