Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Several new titles arrived over the past week including: Before the Curse: The Chicago Cubs’ Glory Years, 1870-1945, by Randy Roberts and Carson Cunningham A People’s History of Baseball, by Mitchell Nathanson Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest Maverick, by Paul Dickson (Of The Dickson Baseball Dictionary fame) The Big Show: Charles M. Conlon’s Golden Age Baseball […]
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Haven’t done one of these in awhile, but I have a bit of backlog I’d like to clear, so here goes. * We’ll have to agree to disagree. One card collector can’t stand the new 2012 Topps series. Another calls it the best one yet. What do you think? * LibraryJournal.com posted this piece reviewing […]
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The new year marks the commemoration a few prominent events which serve as the topic for several recently-released and forthcoming books. As the oldest Major League ballpark still in use, Fenway Park is the subject of a great deal of nostalgia and mystique (and no, Curt Shilling, these are not dancers in a New York […]
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Tom Seaver and His Times, by Steven Travers. Taylor Trade, 2011. I have very mixed feelings about this latest effort by Travers (A Tale of Three Cities: The 1962 Baseball Season in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco; The 1969 Miracle Mets: The Improbable Story of the World’s Greatest Underdog Team; and Dodgers Past […]
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by Jimmy Piersall with Al Hirshberg. Atlantic Monthly Press/Little, Brown and Company, 1955. Jimmy Piersall was a two-time All-Star who sent 17 seasons in the Majors…and one summer in a mental institution. That’s the crux of this underrated autobiography from the mid-50s, well ahead of its time in discussing the issue of mental illness. Piersall’s […]
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The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will recognize the twin traditions of baseball and film when, for the sixth consecutive year, it hosts the Baseball Film Festival in Cooperstown, Sept. 30-Oct. 2. Fourteen films, with themes ranging from Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson to the 2003 National League Championship Series, will be screened […]
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Fascinating piece by Andy Martino in the NY Daily News about how the subjects are portrayed in the book and movie. Kind of like listening to yourself on a tape recorder and asking, “Do I really sound like that?” There have been several articles noting the differences between the real Paul DePodesta and the interpretation […]
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The Yankee closer nonpareil became the all-time saves leader when he sealed yesterday’s 3-0 win against the Twins. In his honor, a few appropriate titles for your consideration: Bullpen Diaries: Mariano Rivera, Bronx Dreams, Pinstripe Legends, and the Future of the New York Yankees Heroes of the Bullpen: Baseball’s Greatest Relief Pitchers Pen Men: Baseball’s […]
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The good news: More than half way to the goal of 501 books. The bad news: it takes me away from the blog. Oh well, hang around. It will be worth it in the end. In the meantime, here are a few items for your consideration: Out of Left Field, Rebecca Alpert’s history of Jewish […]
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While doing research for my project, I came across this list, published in 2002, of the 100 top sports books of all time as chosen by the editors of Sports Illustrated. Of those 100, “only” 32 were about baseball. The nerve. Anyway, here’s the SI piece, trimmed to just baseball titles, with commentary from the […]
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Dickson, author of several outstanding books on the game, not the least of which is his eponymous Baseball Dictionary, was recently honored at an event sponsored by the Baseball Reliquary. While Robert Alomar, Bert Blyleven, and Pat Gillick were in Cooperstown last weekend, the Reliquary was having an “induction day” of its own in southern […]
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Juan Marichal, Warren Spahn, and the Pitching Duel of the Century, by Jim Kaplan. Triumph Books, 2011. Note: This review appears on Bookreporter.com. These days, a manager is thrilled if he can get a “quality start” out of a pitcher: six innings with no more than three earned runs. Gone are the days of 25 […]
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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
Spring cleaning, er, reading
March 7, 2012 · 2 comments
When my wife gave me a kindle for the Hanukka, it was with the understanding that I would bring fewer books into the house. Yeah, that’s not working out too well right about now, as new baseball titles just keep coming. I have been asking for them in Kindle format whenever possible, but it’s not […]
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