Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
After his interview with the veteran writer, Graham Womack at Baseball: Past and Present wonders if there isn’t some way for the Hall of Fame to recognize Creamer’s his contributions. What a great idea. There are several worthy scribes who didn’t work for newspapers (and therefore don’t qualify for the Spink Award, which “or meritorious […]
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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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The Classic, a new outlet for quality sports items (what Grantland was supposed to be, according to their original mission statement), is quickly becoming one of my favorite sites and will continue to be as long as they keep posting stuff like this: An appreciation for the three volume The Baseball Hall of Shame, by […]
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Sometimes I wonder, with all the new books coming out every year, why anyone would want to read something they’ve already read before. So many books, so little time. But while working on the 501 Book project I came across several titles in my library that I had never read, which no doubt led to […]
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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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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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With the Red Sox having broken their long, long streak without a World Championship, the Cubs are still standing at the wall, waiting to get into the dance. Chicago Heights Patch, one of the new trend of hyper-local sites, published this story about an appearance by Charles Billington, author of the 2005 book Wrigley Field’s […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Feb 25, at 1:30 p.m. Title Rank General Baseball Prospectus 2011 1 Baseball America 2011 Prospect Handbook: The 2011 Expert Guide to Baseball Prospects and MLB Organization Rankings 2 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis (Kindle version) 3 Moneyball: The […]
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The legendary “Bum” died today at the age of 84. Here‘s the Richard Goldstein obituary from the NY Times. Guarantee there will be front page mention of this tomorrow. Snider collaborated on his autobiography, The Duke Of Flatbush, with Bill Gilbert in 1988. Other titles include: The Duke Snider Story, by Winehouse (1964) Duke Snider, […]
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Intro: As previously stated, the recent election of Robert Alomar and Bert Blyleven got me to thinking: how many Hall of Famers have had books written about them or penned their own stories. Here are the results. Again, this is not an all-inclusive list; almost all juvenile titles have been omitted. * * * “M” […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Feb 25, at 1:30 p.m. Title Rank General Baseball Prospectus 2011 1 Baseball America 2011 Prospect Handbook: The 2011 Expert Guide to Baseball Prospects and MLB Organization Rankings 2 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis (Kindle version) 3 The Last […]
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One of the all-time greats of the game, Honus Wagner enjoyed renewed fame because of his rare baseball card. He was born this date in 1878. The books specifically on Wagner (he’s included in many histories of the game) are divided into those about his life and those about the card and the collectibles industry. […]
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Hal Richman didn’t waste any time when I asked him if he could have envisioned celebrating the 50th anniversary of his iconic baseball game, Strat-O-Matic. “Absolutely not,” he said, after some initial laughter over the absurdity of the situation. Hundreds of the game’s fans from across the country will participate in tomorrow’s “2011 Strat-O Opening […]
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By the way, it’s still winter so why aren’t we hearing snow-themed songs anymore? “Winter Wonderland” and “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” among others, are not “holiday” songs, per se, so they’d still be valid. Just sayin’. Thought I saw my first “annual” at the bookstore last week, but it was a fantasy publication, so it […]
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Sharing the special day is one current and one future Hall of Famer. Dizzy Dean was born on this date in 1910. The star hurler was the smiling face of baseball during the Depression, know for his folksy Arkansas sayings that are the staple of quotations about the game. The current Redbird is Albert Pujols, […]
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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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