Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
The Boston Globe has been active on the baseball review front of late. Bill Nowlin, author of several titles on the Red Sox, contributed this piece on Howard Bryant’s bio of Hank Aaron for today’s edition. Yesterday, Bill Littlefield, host of NPR’s Only a Game, considered two baseball titles — Cardboard Gods by Josh Wilker […]
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“Olney make believe…” Sorry, I can never keep that name straight. The natural tendency is to dyslex it into “only.” ESPN baseball writer/broadcaster Buster Olney was the guest on the latest Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me‘s “Not My Job” segment. I felt kind of badly for him. There was zero response to Peter Sagal’s introduction. […]
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Heard about the video of Carl Kassel of NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me throwing out the first pitching before a Cardinals’ game last week. I got to thinking, how many of the Cardinals — or any pro athletes — have heard of the program? How many of them have ever heard of NPR? How […]
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So if you haven’t gotten your literary sports fan anything yet, here are some suggestions from Joe Favorito, a specialist in sports branding. You’ll have to winnow out the baseball titles from the rest. Same for Stiletto Sport’s list (sorry if I sound chauvanistic, but only a women’s list could consider Alyssa Milano’s Safe at […]
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Found this a few weeks ago, but had forgotten about it. A great new book — Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera — tells the backstories about many of his famous paintings, including his 1948 work, “The Dugout,” which depicts a desolate Cubs team languishing in poor times. NPR picks up the story here, with the […]
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again, I wonder how these guys, from one show to another, manage to kep the information fresh. I can just imagine the host of a program that appears later listen to a previous program and muttering at the host, “Bastard! I was going to ask that.” Anyway, Gibson and Jackson appeared on NPR’s Weekend Edition […]
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Words, actually. And days. In recognition of the post-season, the Brian Lehrer Show on NPR had two days of baseball terms, courtesy of Erin McKean of wordnik.com. The program was so nice, they ran it twice, first on Oct. 20and an “extra innings” segment the following day. McKean, who publishes Verbatim Magaizne (to which I […]
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This week in baseball books, featuring the best-sellers according to Amazon.com on Friday, October 16. Title Rank General Sixty Feet, Six Inches: A Hall of Fame Pitcher & a Hall of Fame Hitter Talk about How the Game is Played, by Bob Gibson, Reggie Jackson, and Lonnie Wheeler 1 The Machine: A Hot Team, a […]
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All Things Considered often features stories about baseball. But they don’t podcast so it’s a rare treat to post one of their stories. In this case, it’s a pro-fantasy piece by Tony Horwitz which sings the praises of books on the topic. Sometimes a fantasy…is all you need.
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This week’s episode of my favorite NPR program featuerd Jimmy Fallon on the “Not my job” segment. Since we just celebrated the 30th anniversary of Disco Demolition Night, the topic was bad baseball promotions. Fallon should be an expert since he made a bad baseball movie (Fever Pitch).
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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
* The only time Mark McGwire will be connected with National Public Radio
January 20, 2010
Our favorite game show host, Peter Sagal, included the recent shocking news about Mark McGwire on the latest episode of Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. In the “Who’s Carl This Time” feature, sidekick Carl Kassel offered the quote: “I used very very low dosages. There was no way I wanted to look like Lou Ferrigno […]
Tagged as: Mark McGwire, NPR, Peter Sagal
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