Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
In a scene from the film version of Eight Men Out, Albert Austrian, the crackerjack attorney hired by Chicago White/Black Sox owner Charles Comiskey to defend his wayward players, is introducing his law partners to the defendants: Austrian: Their names may not sound familiar, but I’d say that these men are the Ty Cobb, the […]
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Jackie Robinson on Life After Baseball, edited by Michael G. Long. Syracuse University Press, 2013. Some former athletes botch attempts to remain relevant after their playing days are over. They offer opinions that, while certainly their right to have and express, do little to offer insight (or interest) as to what kind of people they […]
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The New York Times ran this marvelous story about the annual Complete Book of Baseball (and lesser sports) edited by Zander Hollander. A nice history lesson. I still have all of these, along with their predecessor, The xxxx Major League Baseball Handbook. These paperbacks sold for, like 50 cents, maybe a buck towards the end […]
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Don’t want to get involved with the whole A-Rod ban business, but couldn’t pass up this from the New York Post, which I usually only consider when lining the birdcages. Of course, if you want to get picky about it should be “played” on, but close enough for jazz. Say what you will about Rodriguez […]
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The New York Times‘ Ben Strauss published this profile of old-school White Sox broadcaster Ken “Hawk” Harrelson (the subject of a recent MLB Network documentary), who is unabashedly anti-Moneyball (and perhaps, by extension, anti-The Extra 2%). I must admit, I was kind of surprised to look at his stats: Considering he hit 23 homers in […]
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The New York Times ran this article in the front section about trying to find a way to make maple bats more shatter-resistant. I don’t know what David Wright uses, but in the Wednesday night game, his bat broke against his head on a swing. Yikes. He didn’t even get out of the batter’s box […]
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Michigan Live posted this review on John Rosengren’s new biography, Hank Greenberg: The Hero of Heroes. Upshot: “Rosengren…lovingly describes the devotion of American Jews to a man who overcame harassment and flat feet to become not just a baseball star, but an inspiration to his people.” Here’s something you don’t see everyday: a British book […]
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Former Red Sox skipper Terry Francona’s self-named memoir debuts on the NY Times‘ Best Seller list at number 2. Gregory Cowles included it in the print edition of the Sunday Book Review’s “TBR: Inside the List” column. Unfortunately, it’s not on-line as of this writing so you’re own your own, since it’s too long for […]
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A semi-occasional attempt to catch up on various items of literary (and other) interest. ♦ Keith Eggener published this nicely-illustrated piece on “The Demolition and Afterlife of Baltimore Memorial Stadium” on designobserver.com. I love finding baseball items from sources that are about as far away from baseball as you can get. ♦ As mentioned in […]
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(To borrow The New York Times‘ motto) Marty Appel recently revised his helpful list of baseball titles that have appeared on the Times‘ best-seller list. The article appears on the Sports Collectors Digest website. As Appel, a former PR director for the New York Yankees, notes there are several familiar books that are conspicuous in […]
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With the Washington Nationals doing so well, it’s not surprising that some media outlets are jumping on this unlikely bandwagon. The Atlantic posted this article about the local fans behavior, unaccustomed as they are to being in a position where they can lord it over lesser ball clubs (like the Mets). The Washington Post, on […]
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♦ Tom Hoffarth’s latest two entries on his 30/30 feature: The Team That Forever Changed Baseball and America: The 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers, by The Society of American Baseball Research, edited by Lyle Spatz, Maurice Bouchard and Leonard Levin, and Conspiracy of Silence: Sportswriters and the Long Campaign to Desegregate Baseball, by Chris Lamb. Upshots: Dodgers […]
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What the heck is toddlin’ anyway? The Chicago Tribune posted several items of literary baseball interest recently. ♦ Rob Manker on the 30th anniversary of the publication of W.P. Kinsella’s Shoeless Joe. One of the scarier points: many kids who first read the book now have kids of their own. ♦ James Finn Garner, who […]
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I have a soft spot for ballplayers who remain on one team for their entire career. Especially in the post reserve clause era, when athletes often look for the biggest paycheck, if not the best fit. Loyalty is a hard thing to come by these days. How many Cardinals fans expected Albert Pujols would re-sign […]
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From the Feb. 20 New York Times: “The New York Times sportswriter who covered the Mets in 1962, their first season, recalls the cast of characters who gathered in St. Petersburg, Fla., for spring training.” I’m sure many more pieces about the Mets of old will appear during the course of the season. If nothing […]
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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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Here’s the latest week’s worth of Tom Hoffarth’s Book a Day feature from the LA Daily News. Day 16: The Most Famous Woman in Baseball: Effa Manley and the Negro Leagues Day 17: 1961*: The Inside Story of the Maris-Mantle Home Run Chase Day 18: Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball’s Longest Game […]
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Just like the vitamins, only with baseball books. April is that time of year when our old friend Tom — who writes about sports and sports media for the Los Angeles Daily News — does his “30 baseball books in 30 days” bit. And, just like last year, we’ll be posting his considerations within these […]
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The NY Times‘ George Vecsey wrote this piece focusing on Stan Musial and basketball’s Bill Russell as among the latest group of recipients for America’s highest civilian honor. Isn’t it kind of funny: no matter how much of a big shot they are — they could be President of the United States or a billionaire […]
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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
Odd Times
July 30, 2012
Found a couple of baseball items in this weekend’s New York Times, but not in the usual place (i.e., the sports section). In the Sunday Magazine, The Ethicist‘s Chuck Klosterman weighed in on the rights of ownership when it comes to foul ball distribution. In the Week in Review section, Nicholas Dawidoff, author of The […]
Tagged as: Chuck Klosterman, Ethicist, New York Times Magazine, Nicholas Dawidoff, Sunday Magazine
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