Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
I recently compared book excerpts with movie trailers. It’s my contention that the publications concentrate on the most salacious or controversial passages they can find because, let’s face it, people love the dirt. So when you see headlines such as “Jorge Posada bitter toward Yankees management in book,” or “Yankee great Jorge Posada still steamed […]
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NEW STUFF: 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… […]
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I was listening to a Leonard Lopate interview with Greg Proops, a comic featured on the popular TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway, host of The Smartest Man in the World podcast, and, most recently, author of The Smartest Book in the World: A Lexicon of Literacy, A Rancorous Reportage, A Concise Curriculum of […]
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The “poet laureate”/PA announcer for the Red Sox was the guest for the “Not My Job” segment of last week’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, which was broadcast from the Wang Theater in the City Performing Arts Center in Boston. You can read the transcript or listen to Flavin — along with host Peter Sagal, […]
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This whole Brian Williams business (not this Brian Williams, although he might have his own stories to tell) has a lot of tongues wagging. If he was “lying” about some of his experiences — being in a helicopter in Afghanistan that was shot down, seeing a body floating on the water in New Orleans after […]
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This was one of the questions on the latest Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me: PETER SAGAL: Right now, panel, some more questions for you from the week’s news. Amy, sports question for you. For the first time in 29 years, the Kansas City Royals have made it to the World Series but they almost didn’t […]
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It’s a shame that Derek Jeter’s final days as a Yankee have to be enmeshed in this “debate” over his place in team and MLB history. When I first heard about Keith Olbermann’s “Jeter smackdown,” I thought, “there Keith goes again, trying to show he’s the smartest guy in the room.” But after listening to […]
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Listening to the podcast of Wait Wait Don’t Tell me is a staple of my Monday morning commute. I always pay attention, but even more so when baseball is included in the conversation. From the latest show’s “Bluff the Listener” segment: Announcer Bill KURTIS: Taking baseball into the future. Host Peter SAGAL: Americans started playing […]
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Among the other things I’ve neglected to post recently was the cornucopia of recent NPR programs featuring baseball, in one form or another. On All-Star Game Tuesday (July 15) Leonard Lopate interviewed Ken Griffey Sr., author of Big Red: Baseball, Fatherhood, and My Life in the Big Red Machine You can listen to that segment […]
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Is he destined to be a pop culture touchstone? From this week’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me from host Peter Sagal: In just a minute, Carl gets ejected when umpires find rhyme tar on his neck. It’s the Listener Limerick Challenge.
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Steve Rushin was a guest on Milwaukee’s WUWM to discuss his new book, The 34-Ton Bat: The Story of Baseball as Told Through Bobble Heads, Cracker Jacks, Jock Straps, Eye Black, and 375 Other Strange and Unforgettable Objects. You can read about and listen to his appearance here. Missed this one from Nov. 29: On […]
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I’m reading The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams for an upcoming review on Bookreporter.com. When I received the galleys, my first thought was similar to Rob Neyer’s, who noted in this post, “Hey, there’s another book about Ted Williams.” (Excerpt here. By the way, although I understand the title, it’s too similar to […]
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Or, in the case, the podcast did. Both of these items relate to the recent World Series. An offshoot of the “National Pastime Radio” tag, this was heard in the “Who’s Carl This Time” segment of on the Nov. 2 episode of Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me: PETER SAGAL: All right, Gary, here is your […]
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Speaking of the Dodgers, the legend (wait for it) ary broadcaster was himself the subject of this interview on All Things Considered. Scully began working for the Dodgers in 1950, but he wasn’t calling that historic 1951 playoff game with the NY Giants where Pafko was left hanging. From “Vin Scully Remembers His Greatest Calls,” […]
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Baseball’s Methuselah appeared on Fresh Air, interviewed by Dave Davies, to discuss his long and storied career and new book, Just Tell Me I Can’t: How Jamie Moyer Defied the Radar Gun and Defeated Time You can read the story and listen to the segment here. UPDATE: I had not yet listened to the segment […]
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is available on Amazon.com,
In my most recent "day job," I was the sports and features editor for a weekly New Jersey newspaper, where I hosted another blog. Busy, busy, busy.
I did a profile piece on the award-winning cartoonist Arnold Roth and he was nice enough to "immortalize" me.
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
