Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
The annual baseball preview issues are here. We look forward to these every years, especially with the dearth of “real baseball” (as opposed to fantasy) magazines available this year. Before the days of the Internet, you took what you could get and appreciated it, even if the information was “old” by the time you read […]
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A little bit ago, I posted this piece from The Atlantic (along with my own morose ramblings) about a whole new kind of baseball glove. Viola, from a recent ABC News story:
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The guys on my softball team make fun of my glove. It’s old and very floppy and has resulted in a couple of errors as the ball flicked would bend back the top rather than stick in the webbing. I’ve been thinking of buying a new one but have been a bit reluctant. It’s not […]
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Many networks pull ratings stunts by pairing two of their popular shows together (NBC’s Law and Order with Homicide: Life on the Streets, for example). So I feel it’s kosher to offer this piece by author Allan Barra on The Atlantic‘s website on why Wilt the Stilt was the Big Bambino of his sport. It […]
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Henry D. Fetter, author of Taking on the Yankees: Winning and Losing in the Business of Baseball, published this piece on Atlantic.com asking, “Should the Mets’ Owners Worry About Jury Bias in Their Madoff Trial? Key paragraph: No “one percenter” relishes the idea of having their fate determined by the proverbial “jury of their peers” […]
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Visited by local Barnes and Noble, hoping to pick up some more baseball annual magazines. I already have a couple, but was expecting more to have arrived since I purchased them several weeks ago. I’ve been meaning to mention this for awhile. Marketing research has shown that items displayed at eye level sell better than […]
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David Epstein published this article on “How Lenny Dykstra Got Nailed.” The writer elaborates on the story on the “Inside Sports Illustrated Podcast.” Last week the cover story was “Marlinsanity.” Cute. Very original.
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Eephus League posted a link to a series of Life Magazine’s best baseball photos, so I’m extending the gesture. Paying it forward, as it were.
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This is the year-end issue, so it’s not that strange to find a baseball item. In this case, it’s Lee Jenkins’ excellent recap of “Best. Night. Ever.” which tells the stories of those amazing games on Sept. 28 that saw the Rays win in their last at-bat to win a playoff spot, the Red Sox […]
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Eephus League, the brainchild of Bethany Heck, is an eclectic and imaginative on-line magazine. Next year it will make the leap to a print edition. You can see a sample online here. Judging just by the preview, it looks great. Well-produced, graphically-sharp, and fun! I haven’t seen anything like it since the short-lived 108 a […]
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Found of a couple of interesting items at the local B&N. The first was USA Today‘s annual sports yearbook (sorry, couldn’t find a picture of the cover on-line). It has all the usual info: lots of stats and standings, capsule news roundups, photos, etc. It carries a cover price of $7.99. My main bugaboo was […]
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When I was a kid, about 10 years old, I used to get a weekly allowance of 50 cents, which I normally would use to purchase a baseball magazine. One week, while running errands for my mother, I took the audacious step of using some of the change to supplement my stipend to buy both […]
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Cy Young or Cy Not? (Can’t believe I got four wrong!)
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The Oct. 24 issue carried items about “Goats of Octobers Past,” Joe Sheehan on the Rangers; and Tom Verducci on the Series in general The Oct. 31 issue carried Verducci’s update on one of the most exciting Fall Classic in recent years ; a “sympathy note” to Red Sox Nation, and a sneak peek at […]
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At the risk of sounding jingoistic, if the Fall Classic doesn’t take place in New York, it posts a problem for local sports pages. How much should they be writing, and would their readers care that much. So you go looking for filler. In this case The New York Times published this cool piece last […]
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As promised, here are the baseball-related items from the current issue, which features the release of Moneyball as its cover story. Austin Murphy on “Brad Pitt Deals“ Tom Verducci on “The Art of Winning An (Even More) Unfair Game“ And a brief history of Sabermetrics Also, Joe Posnanski on uber Cubs fan Steve Hirschtick.
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Hope not, because Moneyball gets the honors for the Sept. 26 issue. The stories aren’t up yet, but I’ll post when available.
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Ryan Braun? Too bad. Nyger Morgan? It’s been real, man. Prince Fielder. Crowned. Sports Illustrated features Milwaukee’s finest on its Aug. 29 cover of Sports Illustrated. And you know what that means. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
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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
I don’t like the looks of this: NL to adopt the DH?
March 6, 2012
First it was regular interleague play. Then the Brewers switched leagues. Now the Astros will move to the AL (why couldn’t they have just left the Brewers alone?) But now, Sports Illustrated‘s Tom Verducci asks “Is the designated hitter coming to a National League park near you?” I get it. They’re trying to pump up the […]
Tagged as: Designated hitter, Sports Illustrated, Tom Verducci
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