Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Just curious. These days, there are less than a handful of annual baseball magazines that are not devoted to the fantasy aspects of the game. While the features and team profiles are the same from each publisher, they often have different covers depending on the market to which they are distributed. I almost bought the […]
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Or WHIP? Or some other 21st century stat? Recently picked up the first baseball magazine of the year — Lindy’s Sports Baseball 2021 Preview — and feel it’s already useless. Predictions are a main feature of most of these publications. Problem is, because they are prepared and released weeks before the season starts, they cannot […]
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My baseball library is divided into three main sections: the attic, my basement office, and the rest of the house. I was cleaning the attic yesterday, because what else is there to do? While trying to cull the herd, putting things in boxes to eventually give away or ::shudder:: throw out, I can across a […]
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The next-best thing to colera? A roundabout way to say that I picked up the baseball preview issue of Sports Illustrated, now in its new iteration (Dated “Spring 2020”). Of course, I realize that this is no longer a weekly publication, let alone a website that’s constantly updated. And to be fair, I don’t know […]
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Sometimes I get grief when I complain about the quality of baseball films. My friends say I’m being too hard because I know and expect too much. In the words of that great philosopher, Steve Martin But I came across this on Youtube and thought it was pretty cool: Joc Pederson, Justin Turner, and Ferris, […]
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when the baseball magazines hit the stores. When you think about them, these publications seem quite quaint. After all, once you commit to putting something in print, it’s pretty much outdated the minute you put it on the shelf. Sure, some things remain the same, such as last season’s statistics. Since numbers are numbers, they […]
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It might have been a nice idea to pair their recent cover with a Roger Angell story, but I’ll take what I can get.
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I am not prone to using profanity on any of my blogs but when I picked up my MLB Preview, what did I see? A photo of Le’veon Bell, the NY Jets big deal. Now, I know that the baseball annuals tailor their covers according to region, but this? Inexcusable. There shouldn’t be anything other […]
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I was so desperate for baseball news, I actually bought a fantasy magazine a few weeks ago. I’ll be honest: in the past few years, the game has lost its allure for me. Not the literary or historical aspects, but the actual guys who are currently playing. So I make my annual “resolution” to be […]
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Headnote: I’ve decided to bow to the times and include separate lists for e-books and audio books. Be aware that while many titles also appear in print versions, pretty much anyone can produce an e-book these days, so I’m not going to comment at all about the quality. As far as the audio goes, I’m […]
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Those of you who have been following this blog for awhile know that I like to do a “compare & contrast” of the baseball preview issues for Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine in which I would look at the features and predictions for each, as well as examine “the next big thing” that captured […]
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By now most of you are familiar with my caveats, so I’ll just mention them briefly: The list includes only print editions (no kindle or audio versions) because I’m old school. Second, since the rankings are updated every hour, these lists might not longer be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them. But […]
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By now, most of you are familiar with my caveats, so I’ll just mention it briefly: The list includes only print editions (no kindle or audio versions) because I’m old school. Second, since the rankings are updated every hour, these lists might not longer be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them. But […]
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Sorry, don’t know how to make a backwards “R.” People love lists, so websites and blogs give the people what they want. Sometimes the lists come in one long page, other times you have to scroll through slide shows, thereby increasing your time on the site which helps their analytics. Don’t get me started on […]
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NOTE: I have been posting these things long enough now that a few have commented that the introductory section isn’t necessary anymore. But I’m leaving it in because, to paraphrase Joe DiMaggio when asked why he played so hard all the time, there may be people who’ve never read the best-seller entries before. So on […]
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Mazel tov to Michael Leahy, winner of the 2016 CASEY Award presented by Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine, as the best baseball book of the year for The Last Innocents: The Collision of the Turbulent Sixties and the Los Angeles Dodgers. It is certainly one of my all-time favorites; if I ever get a chance […]
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Been busy finalizing my forthcoming book, Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War, which has severely reduced my Bookshelf time. (Even got my first blurb! Very cool.) So in attempt to play catch-up… It’s nice to have your book referenced in a story. You never know that it might […]
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NOTE: I have been posting these things long enough now that a few have commented that the introductory section isn’t necessary anymore. But I’m leaving it in because, to paraphrase Joe DiMaggio when asked why he played so hard all the time, there may be people who’ve never read the best-seller entries before. So on […]
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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
Such stuff as dreams are made on
July 14, 2020
With apologies to Shakespeare. I received this link from a high school classmate today about a treasure trove of baseball cards found in the attic of a recently deceased 97-year-old. (Thanks, Terry!) I have fantasies about some friend or colleague telling me a loved one wants to just get rid of a bunch of old […]
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