Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Richard Ben Cramer, author of Joe DiMaggio: The Hero’s Life, is working on a biography of American League MVP Alex Rodriguez. Last month, he told Publishers Weekly he expected A-Rod, who had declared free agency, to re-sign with his old team. So basically there were only two options: Either he would or he wouldn’t. Cramer […]
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The Canadian Press reported yesterday that “Joe Torre to recall his New York Yankees years in planned memoir.” The book, currently untitled, will be co-authored by Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci and will include Torre’s memories of the Yankees, with whom he won four World Series championships, and general thoughts on the game. Doubleday, an imprint […]
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My annual fall feature from Bookreporter.com.
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A Chicago Tavern:A Goat, a Curse, and the American Dream by Rick Kogan Well, the Cubs failed — again — to make it to the World Series. Naturally it was the billy goat’s fault. Rick Kogan tells the whole sorry, and sometimes, confusing story in A Chicago Tavern. But what it really comes down to […]
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Don’t cry for Joe, Argentina. According to Rich Shapiro’s column in the Oct. 20, NY Daily News, the sky’s the limit for the ex-Yankee skipper: He gets paid up to $100,000 for each speech he delivers, and he could land a big contract as a sports broadcaster. He also has penned two books. A third […]
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Baseball Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda, who recently released his autobiography I Live for This, will be the guest speaker, with co-author Los Angeles Times sports columnist Bill Plaschke, at the Smithsonian, U.S. Department of Interior, 1849 C Street, NW (Main Entrance), Washington, DC on Wednesday, Nov. 14, at 7 p.m, Using video clips to […]
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Carlos Zambrano, the ace of the Chicago Cubs staff, has released his biography, published by Triumph Books. A piece in the Oct. 11 Chicago Sun-Times by Lacy J. Banks, reported that: Zambrano said his biography pretty much reflects the season he just finished. ”This season was full of ups and downs, and it ended too […]
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NINE is a scholarly journal published twice a year by the University of Nebraska Press that “studies all historical aspects of baseball, centering on the societal and cultural implications of the game wherever in the world it is played. [The] journal features articles, essays, book reviews, biographies, oral history, and short fiction pieces.” Included in […]
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From time to time, various writers, editors, publications, etc., will offer their list of “best” or “essential” baseball titles. So from time to time I’ll pass them on, FYI, with or without comment. First up, from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, two members of the Brewers front office and a local college professor weigh in on […]
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by Mike Shannon (McFarland, 2007) As one who collects baseball books, I was happy to come across Mike Shannon’s latest offering. After reading it, however, I find myself depressed, contrary to the author’s philosophy. I — along with everyone else, according to the author — will never be a “completist,” that is one who acquires […]
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From Publisher’s Weekly, Sept. 24, 2007: After an auction that saw several publishers bid into the seven figures, Scribner’s Nan Graham took world rights to the first authorized biography of baseball great Willie Mays. The book will be written by bestselling author James S. Hirsch, and Todd Shuster at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth sold the project, […]
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by Frank Deford Sourcebooks, 2007 I don’t like reviews of fiction too much. Not reading them, not writing them. I find it too subjective. And when it comes to writing, I find it difficult to not divulge too much of the story. The titular “entitled” is a superstar outfielder for the Cleveland Indians. His “entitlement,” […]
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From Baseball-fever.com, this discussion thread about books, television, and other arts-type issues. From the Dowagiac (Mich.) Daily News Web site, an somewhat poorly-written item about a new book on the House of David, which includes considerable material about its famous baseball team. From the Faithandfear, a blog about the NY Mets, this review of Dana […]
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From the Sept. 4, 2007 issue of the Worcester Telegram: Baseball and ghost stories are part of the fabric of American culture. A new book by Mickey Bradley and Dan Gordon, Haunted Baseball: Ghosts, Curses, Legends, Eerie Events (288 pp., The Lyons Press, $14.95), combines both, according to the publisher. It is a “fun and […]
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From Publishers Weekly, Sept. 4, 2007 With 2008 set to be the last year that the New York Yankees will play in the current Yankee Stadium, Pocket Books’ v-p and deputy publisher Anthony Ziccardi has acquired Yankee Stadium: The Official Retrospective. The book, acquired from Mark Vancil of Rare Air Media, will feature more than […]
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By Thomas K. Perry Pocal Press, 2007. From his humble Southern roots up to and including his banishment from organized baseball, Joseph Jefferson Jackson was considered one of the brightest stars in the sports firmament. Even the mighty Babe Ruth claimed to have modeled his style after the lithe lefty. The story of Shoeless Joe […]
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From the Charleston Post and Courier, a review of HOME RUN: The Definitive History of Baseball’s Ultimate Weapon, by David Vincent (Potomac Books). David Vincent hits it out of the park with “Home Run.” But he must be charged with an error. The error being: only two pages of the book deal with the steroid […]
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Catching up… From the Manchester Union Leader, a sports column with reviews of New England-centric media, including Senior Year: A Father, A Son, and High School Baseball, by Dan Shaughnessy; High & Outside, a documentary on Bill “Spaceman” Lee; and Yastrzemski, by Carl Yastrzemski. From The London Independent (the unlikely source), this report on the […]
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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
