Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
And they don’t come much bigger than John Goodman. “Babe Ruth (sic) is one of those things I wish I could go back and do over. It’s like being in that dream where you’re in the subway with no clothes on.” Talking about his portrayal of the Yankee legend in The Babe (1992) in the […]
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Google Books now includes magazines. A quick search for the phrase “baseball” returns almost 1,300 hits, including such sources as Ebony, Jet, Baseball Digest, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics (going all the way back to the early 1900s), and New York Magazine. Presumably more publications will be added. If nothing else, it’s an interesting look to […]
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Tom Verducci’s article on Mike Mussina, future possible, maybe, who knows Hall-of-Famer. Ben Reiter’s piece on heavy hurlers
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I miss Life magazine. None of its descendants match the mix of news and photos and even social impact that the legendary publication enjoyed during its heyday. Now, thanks to Google, you can view some 200 baseball images. It’s a nice mix, but after looking over the available shots, there’s obviously a lot missing. Not […]
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Too bad they can’t get rid of some of those annoying supplements that highlight fashion, furnishings, and vacations that “regular” folks can’t afford instead of doing away with Play, the Times‘ sports supplement. If the sports department is the toy store of a newspaper, I guess we won’t be getting much in the way of […]
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It used to be you had to wait until the following year to read about previous season. But now, thanks to all kinds of new technologies, it’s almost instantaneous. Baseball Insider, a special issue of Sports Weekly, does a great job of recapturing the excitement of the 2008 season while examining the strengths and weaknesses […]
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Ha, made you look.
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It’s no secret that the publishing world is in a lot of trouble. Newspapers across the country have been laying off staff members or offering buyouts in droves (See “Tony Kornheiser” and “Murray Chass,” among others). The MediaMemo blog reports that several magazines are also feeling the pinch, including many under the banner of Time […]
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A Tom Verducci wrap-up on the Phillies’ World Series victory. Big whup.
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Looks like this will be it for baseball for awhile, now that the World Series is over. So enjoy: Dear America, Wish You Were Here Fuel to the Fire (five radical–but inspired–moves that would give the off-season some sizzle.)
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The baseball post-season takes a back seat to the NBA pre-season as the cover story. Tom Verducci writes the headliner about the Rays in the World Series, while Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus gives the slight nod to Tampa to win in six. Meanwhile, back in Philly…
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The main baseball story profiles Joe Maddon, manager of the Eastern Division Champion Tampa Bay Rays (how many ever thought they’d hear those words strung together?). There’s a sidebar on Angels skipper Mike Scioscia as well. Other items include: A poll on who’s the best base-runner in the game. A “farewell” to Shea
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Baseball features include: A Three Nights in August-treatment of the 2007 finale between the Rockies and Padres, by Buster Olney Dodgers’ pitcher Joe Beimel on “6 things you should know about being a middle reliever” Kenny Mayne’s “Outtakes” column with Mets third baseman David Wright
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ESPN offers this interesting insight for The Magazine‘s baseball editors on their thoughts for feature stories that ran during 2008. Among the top items: The Preview Issues, fantasy and “real life” Profiles on Greg Maddux, Elijah Dukes, Eric Bedard, Brandon Webb, Joel Zumaya, Dustin Pedroia, and Francisco Rodriguez Chicago baseball The Tampa Bay Rays Rating […]
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http://i.cdn.turner.com/sivault/si_online/covers/images/2008/0929_mid.jpgAfter a lengthy absence, baseball takes its rightful place on the cover with a story about Wrigley Field. Other baseball items include: That’s right, there are none.
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Tom Verducci says goodbye to Yankee Stadium in the featured baseball article. MLB Poll: Who’s the toughest lefthander? Jon Heyman writes about Andrew Friedman, executive vice president of the Tampa Bay Rays
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The MLB Poll asks “Whos’ the worst fielder in baeball?” A Chris Ballard feature on base stealers. Ho-hum. Is anyone else dissatisfied with the new-look SI.com? From simple things such as not capitalizing properly (“Si Players Mlb Poll” instead of “SI Players MLB Poll”) to omitting pictures from the magazine-based articles, it just seems they […]
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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
* And now MY tops list
October 29, 2008
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.
Tagged as: baseball books, Mini-reviews, Rankings
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