Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
I was watching Saturday Night Live last weekend and the musical guest was Macklemore whose hot song is “Thrift Shop.” Warning: Naughty words render this video NSFW. There are some “clean” versions to be found, but they don’t convey the story without the action, which is why I’m posting the original. I’m not familiar with […]
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♦ I’m including this piece just because I find it amusing. I hope the Brits don’t get all their baseball info like this. ♦ Who says fiction about the national pastime has to be confined to literature? Here’s a case of fictitious baseball merchandise. ♦ Dan Epstein, author of Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A […]
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I was at a retreat this weekend on Judaism & Baseball (more on that later), where singer/songwriter Dan Bern debuted some pieces from Doubleheader, his forthcoming album of songs about the national pastime. He will officially debut the work at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown tomorrow. From the Hall of Fame press release: The […]
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Speaking of Damn Yankees… The composer/lyricist responsible for such memorable songs as and “Heart” and “Whatever Lola Wants (Lola Gets)” from Damn Yankees died June 21 at the age of 90. Damn Yankees was based on the novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, by Douglass Wallop. Adler also worked on words and music […]
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Remember when Piscopo used to channel Frank Sinatra on Saturday Night Live? That’s the first thing that came to mind when I heard “At Fenway,” by Brian Evans. The fact that there’s actually a commercial promoting this is similarly amusing, as is the fact that the counterman has to identify Jim Rice, the former Red […]
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Baseball Reflections posted this review of High Fives, Pennant Drives, and Fernandomania: A Fan’s History of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Glory Years (1977-1981), by Paul Haddad. Just in time for Opening Day in Japan (which just passed. Sorry for the late post): baseball terms in Japanese! Another late post: GQ ran this profile on broadcasting […]
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Songs and Images from the Early Years of America’s Favorite Pastime, by Jerry Silverman. Alfred Publishing Company, 2007. Fans of both old-tyme baseball and music will enjoy this one. Part-music book, part-collectible (for the reproduction of the sheet music covers), part-historical analysis, The Baseball Songbook is a collection of more than 40 tunes (mostly heretofore […]
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If you’re in the NY area, or can get WNYC (AM 820 in the NY area, 93.9 on the FM dial) somehow, Jonathan Schwartz is having his annual baseball special in which he features songs and events abut the national pastime. Unfortunately, it’s a repeat of an older show (or so I believe) so you […]
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The veteran player, announcer, and commentator has been selected as the 2012 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually for excellence in baseball broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. “Tim McCarver has been the face and voice of baseball’s biggest moments on national television,” said Hall of Fame President […]
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Just in time for the holidays, here’s her reworking of a Christmas classic, made relevant to baseball fans.
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Richard Sandomir published this appreciation of Ruth Roberts, composer of “Meet The Mets” and a couple of other baseball ditties, who died on June 30.
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(Because you can put sheet music on your bookshelf.) So first they said that Jose Reyes had sustained a hamstring injury in Saturday’s game and we held our collective breath. Then they said it was a Grade One, the “best” kind of that injury you can have. He’d miss the Sunday game and, given the […]
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The composer of “Meet the Mets” died June 30 at the age of 84. From the JTA’s Eulogizer blog: Ruth Roberts, 84, wrote ‘Meet the Mets’ Ruth Roberts, a popular song composer whose work was sung by millions of New York Mets fans and the Beatles, among many others, died June 30 at 84. Roberts […]
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Bookshelf shorthand for Take Me Out to The Ball Game, as per Baseball-Reference.com’s Bullpen: To honor the lyricist of Take Me Out to the Ballgame, Jack Norworth Day is celebrated at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. Neither Norworth nor his partner Albert Von Tilzer, who wrote the music, had ever seen a game when they created […]
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Van Lingle Mungo, born 100 years ago today, pitched for 14 seasons (1931-43,1945) for the Brooklyn Dodgers and NY Giants. While he wasn’t a superstar, he did win 120 games, including four seasons of 16 or more victories. Somewhere I have a paper I delivered, deconstructing the out the Dave Frishberg song about players from […]
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The American troubadour turned 70 yesterday. So what does Dylan have to do with baseball? (Is that a rhetorical question? Obviously, or I wouldn’t have asked it.) In 2006, Dylan featured baseball music and poetry in his “Theme Time Radio Hour” on XM Satellite Radio. The one-hour program, available on CD, consisted of several of […]
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because you can put a CD on the bookshelf. Arroyo, who turns 34 today, is an accomplished musician. He released Covering the Bases in 2005 and appeared as a guest on sportswriter Peter Gammons’ 2006 project, Never Slow Down, Never Grow Old. (You can hear samples from both albums by clicking on the links.) You […]
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Brooklyn Cyclones give Aguilera second shot at National anthem? From the AP item: Cyclones general manager Steve Cohen [Editor’s Note: MOT?] said in a statement that “when a player makes a mistake, they usually don’t get a shot at redemption, but with a singer, that’s a different story.” Speaking of the Cyclones, they were included […]
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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
