Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
The cover story by Tom Verducci features the crazy way the season is shaping up so far. Up is down and down is up as the Rays and Marlins — aong other surprise franchises — are reading their divisions. A second feature profiles the Indians’ pitcher Cliff Lee.
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My daughter — my high school freshman age daughter — started receiving Hooah!, a quarterly publication produced for the National Guard. This leads to a couple of question, the first of which is how did they get her name on a mailing list. I’m 99.9% sure she didn’t request it, meaning they had to get […]
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(May 19): Feature story on Elijah Dukes, the Washington Nationals’ “troubled” star Column by Tim Keown on the latest in the continuing soap opera that is Roger Clemens 8 Things to Know About Groundskeepers And the usual from MLB Insider (May 12): Ben Reiter profile of Max Scherzer, rookie pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks (May […]
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I culled this entry from an article on Sportingnews.com about “The Biggest Liars in Sports History”: 9. JOE MORGAN Joe’s Truth: ESPN’s top baseball talking head gave us some baseball history when he beat Philadelphia with a RBI single in his 1964 Major League Baseball debut. His hit (he told us) extended the Colt 45’s […]
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Awhile back it was announced that Lenny Dylstra was working on a lifestyle magazine aimed at former professional athletes which would also purportedly help them manage their finances. Not so fast. According to this piece in the New York Post, there’s trouble a-brewing’.
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Two baseball related items in the May 2 issue of The Week: The Book List has mini-capsule reviews of four titles including But Didn’t We Have Fun?, The Greatest Game; We Would Have Played for Nothing; and The Code. In “The last word” section, “The truth about baseball’s roots” is excerpted from Kevin Baker’s “At […]
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According to Jon Friedman on MarketWatch.com, it’s Sports Illustrated‘s Gary Smith. Perhaps a secret to his success is that he maintains a distance from his peers. “I don’t read that much sports journalism,” he said. He prefers fiction and philosophy, which shouldn’t surprise his fans because he’s a master storyteller and amateur philosopher.
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According to the HBO Web site, the second story of the April 15 edition of the hour-long sports magazine profiles Torii Hunter: Since entering “The Show” in 1997, Torii Hunter has made playing center field look easy. His electrifying, fearless style earned him seven Gold Gloves, as well as a new $90-million contract with the […]
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You know baseball is a serious business when Forbes Magazine makes it the subject of a special issue. To which I say, well done, sirs. The issue. titled “Sportsmoney,” is a glitzy combination of thoughtful articles on economic issues, but with a mix of fun tossed in. Editor Michael Ozanian opines on “Baseball’s Golden Age” […]
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(Because I keep some old gloves on my bookshelf…) While looking for some artwork for the piece on the Forbes baseball special, I came across this 2001 article from the magazine on why they’re not making baseball gloves like they used to. Upshot: [T]oday’s inactive, rushed-to- slaughter, feedlot cattle don’t have hides as strong and […]
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This article in National Review Online is all about how baseball is the professional sport that best embodies conservative principles. The reasons have nothing to do with the game itself — the absence of a clock, the lack of penalties called by officials, the way fans can keep a ball hit into the stands, none […]
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Michael Rowe wrote this analysis of modern sportswriting on the Utne Reader Web site. He laments the art of the craft, as was evidenced by such wordsmiths as Ring Lardner, Huey Fullerton, and, more recently, the likes of Roger Angell. “Does sportswriting suck,” he asks, bemoaning the lack of reporting “that tackles an actual ethical […]
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Get me re-write. This story, dated April 7, is already obsolete since Pedro –called “the Mets’ clown prince and evil genius” — has been put on the disabled list following his first appearance. The onus now falls squarely on the shoulders of Johan Santana. The crew on Pardon the Interruption noted that all he has […]
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Bearing in mind that SI is a weekly, and ESPN a bi-weekly… Sports Illustrated ESPN The Magazine Cover boy(s) “New generation of Stars,” featuring Ryan Braun, Justin Upton, Troy Tulowitzki, Jacob Ellsbury, Clay Buchholz, and Ryan Zimmerman C.C. Sabathia Lead Story Tulowitzki profile Sabathia profile Sidebars(s) Five future stars (Cameron Maybin, Ryan Braun, Jay Bruce, […]
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The Minneapolis-based Finance and Commerce reports on entrepreneurs John Bonnes and Tom Genrich, a couple of Davids trying to beat back the Goliaths (in the form of the Minnesota Twins) by hawking Game Day, their own (unauthorized) version of the team’s program, available for sail at the Metrodome. They also host a similarly-named blog. They’re […]
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Forget the peanuts and popcorn. One of the nice things about the new season is the chance to read another New Yorker essay by Roger Angell. You can also listen to his comment here:
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The newsweekly conducted a 10-question interview with the new Dodger skipper. The queries were submitted by Time‘s readers. The piece also includes an audio.
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The current issue of Men’s Fitness features a cover story on Red Sox’ pitcher Josh Beckett. Meanwhile the current issue of Men’s Health features Derek Jeter as it’s cover boy. (They also have a brief piece featuring Jacob Ellerbsy of the Sox). I’m not just saying this because I’m from the NY area, but Jeter […]
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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 blog 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
* Class in session
May 20, 2008
[This piece appears in the May/June issue of ForeWord Magazine.] Baseball books: Class is in session The notion that baseball is a metaphor for life has been around since man first took bat to ball. In reality, it’s more appropriate to say that the national pastime is a metaphor for education; academic disciplines that baseball […]
Tagged as: baseball book reviews, ForeWord magazine
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