Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
The former manager died yesterday. The NY Times obituary by Bruce Weber put his age “in his early 80s.” Tanner, who led the Pittsburgh, Pirates to the world Championship in 1979, played for eight seasons with the Braves, Cubs, Indians, and Angels from 1955-62, compiling a .263 batting average, 21 homers, and 105 RBI, mostly […]
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The oldest baseball player died Tuesday at the age of 101. Malinosky played briefly for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1937.
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The hard-throwing reliever with the coke-bottle glasses died yesterday at the age of 81. Duren was an alcoholic. He attributed his wildness on the mound just as much to the booze as his poor eyesight. But he cleaned up his act and in later years worked as a substance abuse counselor and motivational speaker. He […]
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The year-end issue pays tribute to the sports figures who passed away in 2010. Baseball notables included Bob Feller, Ron Santo, Bobby Thomson, George Steinbrenner, Phil Cavarretta, Sparky Anderson, Robin Roberts, Gil McDougald, Willie Davis, Dorothy Kamenshek (All-American Girls Professional Baseball League), Bob Sheppard, Jose Lima, Jim Bibby, Ernie Harwell, Ralph Houk, and Mike Cuellar […]
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The legendary documentarian died this weekend at the age of 84. I met Greenspan in 2007 at a program hosted by the Yogi Berra Museum for the premier of his last major project, Pride Against Prejudice: The Larry Doby Story. He was already in failing health but wanted to be on hand out of respect […]
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The pride of The Greatest Generation died yesterday at the age of 92. Feller was one of the bona fide star athletes who served with distinction in World War II, sacrificing prime seasons away from the game when they might have been able to find ways around the draft; Feller could easily have claimed status […]
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The popular Chicago Cubs and White Sox third baseman died Wednesday at the age of 70. At the heyday of my fanhood — 1969 — the Cubs were the hated enemy and Santo was the epitome of the arrogant, self-entitled rival, deeming the Mets unworthy to shine the shoes of the Chicagoans. But later in […]
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Unfortunately, one incident can define your life. Just ask Bill Buckner. Gil McDougald, who died Nov. 28 at the age of 82, was a solid player for the juggernaut Yankees teams of the 1950s, averaging 14 home runs, 76 RBIs, and .276/.356/.410 for 10 seasons. He was Rookie of the Year in 1951, a five-time […]
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That was quick, and perhaps for the best. “If it were done, when ’tis done, then twere well it were done quickly.”
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I was shocked this morning to hear the news of the passing of Bill Shannon, the long-time and popular official scorer and baseball historian, who died yesterday in a house fire in West Caldwell, a few miles over from my residence in Jersey. Shannon, 69, lived with his 92-year-old mother, who, fortunately, was rescued from […]
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Alex Anderson, Creator of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Dies at 90 I used to love this show, even if, as a kid in the 1960s, I didn’t always understand it (there was a lot of political Cold War humor to it). The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle were the ancestors of such contemporary pop culture faves […]
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Maury Allen, who passed away on Sunday, was a great story-teller. I recently attended a screening of the new documentary, Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story, at the Yogi Berra Museum in Little Falls, NJ, which was just a couple of miles from where Maury lived. I can’t recall just now, but I believe […]
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I was flipping back and forth between the Mets and Jets yesterday and upon my return to the baseball broadcast I caught the name “Maury Allen.” Knowing that the veteran sportswriter/author had been in bad health for the past several months, I feared the worst, but nothing turned up in an immediate Internet search. Sadly, […]
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Joshua Prager “broke” the story that the Giants used an elaborate system of electronic buzzers to pass along stolen signals from the outfield, which he incorporated into his book, The Echoing Green: The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and the Shot Heard Round the World in The Wall Street Journal, so I thought […]
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The man who hit “the shot heard ’round the world” died yesterday at the age of 86. Here’s the Richard Goldstein obituary in The New York Times. There have been several books about Thomson’s heroics. His home run is a staple of baseball lore in both fact and fictional versions. The Giants Win the Pennant! […]
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Peter Sagal, staunch Red Sox fan and host of NPR’s Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me, paid “tribute” to the late Yankee owner George Steinbrenner on his July 17 program. Herewith, a transcript of the segment from the “Who’s Carl this time” portion of the program: Sagal: Your last quote is from a man who was […]
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The Brooklyn Dodger pitcher who famously lost a ground ball in the sun during the 1952 World Series died on July 15 at the age of 80. His obituary, written by Richard Goldstein, appeared in yesterday’s New York Times. Like many of his teammates, enjoyed a renewed popularity through books such as Roger Kahn’s The […]
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The veteran sportswriter died Friday at the age of 72. Ziegel wrote mostly for the New York Post and New York Daily News. Here’s the NY Times obit by Richard Goldstein. More tributes from the Daily News, (this one by Filip Bondy), and the Post (and another), as well as Greg Prince’s Faith and Fear […]
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Been on the road the last couple of days, so I missed this. They say things happen in threes, so let this be the end of it. Ralph Houk, Yanks Manager, Dies at 90
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Brian Lehrer featured segments on both Yankee legends on recent shows. Bob Sheppard George Steinbrenner
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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
