Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
USA Today published this list of “Five authors make a pitch for baseball.” I wonder how hard Milano’s PR people are pushing the book. To be honest, I have not read it and want to be fair. But to have hers get top billing over thoughtful and laborious efforts by the likes of Paul Dickson, […]
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No, it’s not a history of the Irish and the national pastime (although we are getting close to St. Patrick’s Day…) One of the benefits of being a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) are the wonderful publications that arrive in the mail each year. Scholars, historians, math professors, and just plain […]
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From our friend Greg Spira comes this link to LibraryJournal.com’s annual baseball feature. Among the usual share of biographies and memoirs, histories, and social commentaries are such themes as: Yet another biography about Yogi Berra, this one by homonymic author Allen Barra, and one on Walter O’Malley by Michael D’Antonio Ira Berkow’s bio of Lou […]
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Another top ten list of baseball flicks, this one from the folks who bring you the VideoHound’s Golden Movie Retriever: Bull Durham Field of Dreams The Natural Pride of the Yankees Major Leagues The Bad News Bears (1979) The Stratton Story A League of Their Own Eight Men Out The Rookie
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Been a bit remiss in recent weeks, so trying to catch up with a roundup of items: BaseballFarming.com offers a list of “Baseball Books to Love,” which includes fiction and non-fiction titles. Prior to 2008, baseball didn’t have to sully itself with official instant replay, but since it did, might as well bone up on […]
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Spitball Magazine just announced the finalists for the 2008 CASEY Award, Almost a Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the 1980 Phillies, by William Kashatus (University of Pennsylvania Press) Neil Leifer: Ballet in the Dirt: The Golden Age of Baseball, by Neil Leifer (Taschen) (See here for samples.) Baseball’s Greatest Hit: The Story of “Take […]
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The Chicago Sun-Times recently offered a list of gift books, as comprised by some of its writers. Of the seven suggestions, Two baseball titles made the grade: Babe Ruth: Remembering the Bambino in Stories, Photos and Memorabilia, by Julia Ruth Stevens and Bill Gilbert; and Remembering Yankee Stadium: An Oral and Narrative History of “The […]
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The Oklahoman’s sports columnist Berry Tramel offers this list of five favorite baseball novels, which does not contain many of the “usual suspects.”
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Humbly submitted via the pages of ForeWord Magazine, this non-fiction list of RK’s “essential” baseball reading. I’ll be working on a fiction version soon.
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From the Suite101.com folks. Includes non-fiction, fiction, and “bullpen” (whatever that means) choices.
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This one of five top choices comes from The Washington Post Book Blog, Shortstacks.
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HitandRunOnline posted this list of preferred manuals for coaches: #5 Lau’s Laws on Hitting – Charlie Lau Jr #4 Youth Baseball Coaching – John T Reed #3 The Baseball Coaches Bible – John Winkin and Jerry Kindall #2 The Mental Game of Baseball – H.A. Dorfman #1 The Baseball Playbook – Ron Polk
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Posted the second list before the first, so here it is: Ball Four (Jim Bouton, 1970) | This book changed everything about how we cover and view sports and the people who play them. It also almost got me and my friend Prisby thrown out of sophomore English because we kept reading passages out loud […]
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MyrtleBeachOnline’s sports columnist Sean Horgan offered a list of 20 great sports books, including the following baseball titles, listed in his order: The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, (Bill James, 1986) This book changed the way many people looked at baseball, encompassing history, anecdotes and statistical analysis. The Great American Novel (Philip Roth, 1973) Roth […]
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Current Baseball Publications, a comprehensive quarterly list compiled by SABR’s Rich Arpi.
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General: Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis Yankee Stadium: The Official Retrospective, by Al Santasiere Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan’s Guide for Beginners, Semi-experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks, by Zack Hample. The Cubs: The Complete Story of Chicago Cubs Baseball, by Glenn Stout and Richard Johnson Science of Hitting, […]
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Sorry, a little late on this one. Holiday, and all. *** General: Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis Yankee Stadium, the Official Retrospective, by Al Santasiere Watching Baseball Smarter, by Zack Hample. The Natural, by Bernard Malamud The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance, by H.A. Dorfman […]
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General: Watching Baseball Smarter, by Zack Hample. Sports Illustrated: The Baseball Book. The Baseball Economist: The Real Game Exposed, by J.C. Bradbury The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition. The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance, by H A Dorfman Essays and Writings: Sports Illustrated: The Baseball Book. Heads-Up Baseball : Playing the […]
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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
* Lists worth a second look
April 9, 2009
The Seattle Literature Examiner posted this piece on the best baseball books that doesn’t so much list or review in itself, save for a mention of Baseball and Philosophy, as it does point to two existing lists, which I replicate here: Baseball Books: A Reading List, via The New York Times (1997-2003 titles) “Baseball fiction […]
Tagged as: baseball books
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