Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Congratulations to Larry Tye. His biography on Satchel Paige won a spot on The New York Times list of the year’s “notable books.” It’s the only baseball title on this exclusive roster, though not the only sports book. Tye’s critically-acclaimed offering is joined by Andre Agassi’s Open.
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Dropped by the local Barnes and Noble at lunch today. Almost shocked to see only one “quicky” publication about the Yankees’ latest championship. The New York Post published The Best, a paperback volume. I never liked this type of publication. It seems like a money grab since the stuff for the most part is just […]
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Kudos for the Star-Ledger and their sidebar for separating World Series records from the rest of the post-season pack. Derek Jeter now has 50 hits in the World Series, which moves him into fifth place. Andy Pettitte has five wins, good for forth place with a bunch of others. I bring this up because there […]
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I was misled. I thought the Philadelphia Inquirer had run an item prematurely congratulating the Phillies for winning the World Series for the second consecutive year. Turns out they just accidentally ran an advertisement from Macy’s, apparently in a rush to sell merchandise. I can’t recall exactly where I saw it, but some news magazine […]
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The Newark Star-Ledger published a small supplement in preview of the Yankees-Angels ALCS which may or may not begin tonight. Headline: “Angels and Demons.” Ha ha. Don’t you just know that if a erayin Yankees’ outfielder does anything heroic, this will change to “Angels and Damon”? Can’t wait to see how the folks at Fox […]
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I think a fantasy for every collector is to come across a rare item totally by accident: a garage sale in which the seller wants to get rid of some bit of memorabilia that used to belong to a dead uncle. A book long-forgotten in an attic corner. Or a cannister of grainy black-and-white film […]
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Because you can keep the confection on a bookshelf (unopened) and certainly the prizes, have gander at this NY Times piece on the current fate and questionable future of Cracker Jack (singular)..
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Jewish for “Happy Holiday,” As Jews around the world gather tonight to mark the holiest day on the calendar, George Vecsey offered this column in today’s Sunday Times. Instead of putting the game at 8 p.m. — prime time, as the networks call it — ESPN and Major League Baseball are accommodating thousands of fans […]
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Today’s NY Times doesn’t even have a story on the Mets at all, while the Yankees have two. Coverage of last nights “dramatic” win is mention only via an Associated Press report. At least it was the lead item.
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You know the season is over for your team when the newspapers publish a feature article…and conclude with a brief graph of two about the game. Like today. The New York Times printed this piece on Daniel Murphy approaching a club record for doubles (stop the presses!) and winding up with a “and, oh, by […]
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A few germane baseball items over the week that I overlooked: In today’s edition, John Klima, author of the recently relased Willie’s Boys: The 1948 Birmingham Black Barons, the Last Negro League World Series, and the Making of a Baseball Legend (Wiley), published this item on how the Yankees blew their chance to sign Willie […]
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Former NY Times baseball writer Murray Chass takes on the subject of anonymous sources in his most recent column. This issue came up in baseball books a few times this year, most notably Serena Roberts’ biography on Alex Rodriguez. Critics took her to task for using A.S. and dubious testimonials about the ballplayer’s use of […]
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Here’s a roundup of reviews I did 10 years ago for Book Page, a “trade” publication available at libraries and bookstores: * * * Perhaps no baseball season has been as closely monitored and analyzed as 1998. Balls were rocketing out of the parks at an amazing rate, and the Yankees were leaving the competition […]
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Author Daniel Ford previews his as-yet-unfiehsed baseball novel on his epnonymous blog, Baseball Sunday with Daniel Ford. So, some of the ballparks are going the healthy route and selling fresh fruit? What are they, my mother? A review of a book about old baseball by a young fan (Major League Baseball Players of 1916, published […]
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(to borrow a film title). We all know the difficulties the newspaper industry are going through. I look at the sports section for the Star-Ledger and find stories take from the NY Daily News. Reporters and columnists are being bought out. So I guess it should come as no surprise to learn that the “Sport […]
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New York Times story: “Court Rules U.S. Seized 2003 Tests Improperly” A fat lot of good it does those players who were outed. Not that they deserve too much sympathy for abusing the public trust, but even so.
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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 things we keep: The National
December 4, 2009
Twenty years ago, next January 31, The National Sports Daily made its debut. In the pre-Internet days, the mission statement of this publication was to provide readers with as much information as quickly and well-written as possible, taking a swipe at the weekly Sporting News (less so Sports Illustrated). Those lending their name to the […]
Tagged as: sports newspaper, The National
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