Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Probably only a few die-hard Dodger fans or baseball historians remember, but Ed Stevens was the man Jackie Robinson replaced when he joined Brooklyn in 1947. I think it’s kind of sad that that is how a person is remembered (Wally Pipp), but at least he is remembered As the New York Times‘ obituary by […]
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As if to prove the fragility of life, the news about Creamer comes just days after a belated literary birthday greetings. Creamer’s obit from The New York Times and by sportswriter/editor Jack McCallum.
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Davidson, a defensive end for the rough and tumble Oakland Raiders in the 1960s, passed away Monday at the age of 72. So what does the hulking football player have to do with baseball you ask? Well, after he left the game, he turned to acting (not unlike Merlin Olsen and Alex Karas). He appeared […]
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One of America’s best loved TV characters died today at the age of 86. This is why you never want to be the umpire: But what a great look back on small town youth baseball.
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A two-time player of the year in the All American Girls Professional Baseball League died yesterday. In addition to be a power hitter (she holds the single-season home run record with 12), she also pitched a perfect game and another no-hitter. From SABR.
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Speaking of Damn Yankees… The composer/lyricist responsible for such memorable songs as and “Heart” and “Whatever Lola Wants (Lola Gets)” from Damn Yankees died June 21 at the age of 90. Damn Yankees was based on the novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, by Douglass Wallop. Adler also worked on words and music […]
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The iconic artist passed away yesterday at the age of 91. I first “discovered” Neiman when I was pre-teen from This Great Game, a baseball coffee-table book which included several of his illustrations. He also did the artwork for a 2002 edition of Casey at The Bat. Neiman portrayed most of the star players over […]
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Man, these guys from my youth are going too fast. Boswell, who pitched primarily for the Twins in the 1960s, has died at the age of 67. Rob Neyer did a nice write-up on him on Baseball Nation. And more from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. This is how I remember Boswell:
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You might not be able to place the face or the name, but for anyone who grew up listening to a post-Mel Allen This Week in Baseball the voice sure is familiar. Fusselle, who had also been the play-by-play announcer for the Brooklyn Cyclones since their debut in 2001, died yesterday at the age of […]
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The world lost one of its greatest writers when Ray Bradbury passed away Tuesday at the age of 91. The author of such sci-fi classics as Fahrenheit 451, The Illustrated Man, and The Martian Chronicles, among many others, got his start with short stories such as “The Big Black and White Game,” which appeared in […]
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Because he might have kept Buzz Capra’s cap on his bookshelf. You know, like a hunting trophy. Borbon, a reliever for the Big Red Machine in the 1970s, died Monday at the age of 65. During the 1973 playoff brawl between his Reds and the New York Mets, Borbon sprinted in from the bullpen to […]
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From The Washington Post: Daniel Rapoport, a Washington journalist, author and publisher who in 1983 founded Farragut Publishing to produce non-blockbuster and out-of-the-ordinary books ranging from pasta salad and cold soup cookbooks to a history of U.S. presidents’ connections with baseball, died April 11 at his home in East Chatham, N.Y. He was 79. The writer […]
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No, the player born William Joseph Skowron was not Jewish, but there is a Jewish connection, no matter how tenuous. Skowron, a resident of Chicago, was a guest on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, the NPR news quiz show hosted by landsman Peter Sagal. Long story short, Skowron said some things that sounded so detailed […]
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The long-time editor of Baseball Digest died April 2 at the age of 87. Kuenster is another of those veterans of the publishing world I waited too long to try to interview. Others included Mark Harris (The Southpaw Trilogy) and Eliot Asinof (Eight Men, Out, Man on Spikes). So I’ve learned my lesson. Of all […]
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The journalism world lost another icon with the passing of Mike Wallace, the veteran CBS newsman known to more recent viewers as one of the original members of the 60 Minutes team. But Wallace, who passed away on Saturday at the age of 93, was also a straight news reporter and anchor, as well as, […]
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The long-time New Yorker cartoonist died on March 22 at the age of 100. Here’s his obit from The New York Times by Bruce Weber. The joke in the above cartoon is a bit hard to see; one ump has a picture of Roger Maris in his locker, while the other has one of […]
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The veteran boxing writer had a soft spot for the national pastime as well. He passed away today at the age of 75, the result of a cardiac arrest. He published Bert Sugar’s Baseball Hall of Fame: A Living History of America’s Greatest Game in 2009, as well as Hall of Fame Baseball Cards in […]
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One of the legends of the sportswriting world passed away yesterday at the age of 93. Bisher began writing for the Atlanta Journal Constitution in 1950, retiring in 2009. he began his newspaper career in 1938 at the Lumberton Voice in North Carolina. I recall him from his work as a region writer covering the […]
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The famed illustrator had much more important issues than baseball to draw about. From the NY Times obituary by Douglas Martin: With sketch pads in hand, Mr. McMahon covered momentous events in the civil rights struggle, spacecraft launchings, national political conventions and the Vatican, turning out line drawings for major magazines and newspapers. Many were […]
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When you’re a young kid, you don’t have any real concept of age. One of the first things you say to a new contemporary is, “I’m seven; how old are you?” When you go to camp, you think the counselors are adults, even though they’re only a few years your senior. But now that I’m […]
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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
