Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Two men who spent most of their playing days with the Dodgers — the former in Brooklyn, the latter in LA — passed away recently. Tommy Brown is in the record books as the youngest position player in Major League history. During World War II, when many established players were in the military, youngsters like […]
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We have all seen these iconic photographs, but how often do we appreciate the artist behind the lens? George Kalinsky was one such shutterbug. He passed away January 16 at the age of 88. Here’s his obituary by Harvey Araton in The New York Times. From the obit: Mr. Kalinsky had wanted to be a […]
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One of the true characters of the game, Bob Uecker, has died at the age of 90. Here’s his obituary by Richard Sandomir in The New York Times and an article from ESPN. As a reminder that you’re an ex-player much longer than a player, Uecker turned a poor playing career (.200, 14 homers, 74 […]
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Bob Veale, one of those hard-throwing, glasses-wearing pitchers who stirred fear in the hearts of batter, died January 3 at the age of 86. The six-foot-six lefty spent most of his 13-year career with the Pittsburgh Pirates before spending his last three seasons with the Boston Red Sox. Here’s his obituary by Andrew Destin in […]
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I had put off an LWF piece on the passing of Rocky Colavito because I was preparing a Bookshelf Conversation with writer and long-time Indians fan Scott Raab. But in my excitement to have my good friend on as a guest, I plum forgot about the Rock. Colavito died December 10 at the age of […]
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Still shocked that Rickey Henderson passed away at the age of 65, just a few days before his Christmas birthday. I always feel an extra pang of regret when someone younger than me dies. Henderson, was what many might call a colorful character. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2009, accumulating 3,055 […]
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Two players from my youth recently passed away. I can’t explain it, but for some reason Rico Carty was the first non-Mets player I took a liking to. Looking at his baseball card from my first serious go at collecting in 1967, I remember being impressed with his stats and surprised he wasn’t mentioned in […]
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The first Little Leaguer to make it to the Majors, pitcher Joey Jay passed away Sept. 27 at the age of 89. Here’s his obituary from The New York Times by Richard Goldstein. Jay made his debut at the tender age of 17 with the Milwaukee Braves in 1953. He was traded to the Cincinnati […]
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Fernandomania. One of the greatest characters of late 20th century game passed away October 22 at the age of 63. The chunky lefty made his debut for the Dodgers as a September call-up in 1980, winning two decisions. The following year, he won his first eight games, five by shutouts, en route to a magical […]
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(Been on vacation for a bit to Hyannis. Unfortunately, it was after the Cape Code League had concluded so no games to attend or caps to purchase, although I was able to get a Harbor Hawks t-shirt.) It’s always a shock when I see a news flash on a crawl on the TV screen. While […]
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Lost in the tributes to baseball “legend” James Earl Jones was the passing of Ed Kranepool, one of the original New York Mets, who died Sunday at the age of 79 after struggling with heath issues for many years. Here’s his obituary by Richard Sandomir from The New York Times, which noted that “[Kranepool] is […]
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Appearances to the contrary, Don Wert was not the quintessential “light hitting shortstop.” Over the course of his nine-year career, all but the last spent with the Detroit Tigers, he had four seasons of 10 or more homers to go along with slash line of .244/.314/.343 (notice how we’re getting farther and farther away from […]
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I must admit, when I first saw the headline, I though it was Billy Beane, the former GM of the Oakland As for the Moneyball phenomenon. But Billy Bean was a pioneer in his own right, having been the only living openly gay Major League player (current or former), after coming out in 1999. Glenn […]
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I’ve been remiss. Bob Newhart passed away July 18 at the age of 94. I don’t know how this comes across, but when a celebrity dies, I look for baseball connections. Actors who portrayed athletes in films or on stage; writers of other topics who had a fondness for the game; musicians who palled around […]
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We boomers lost another hero from our childhood with the passing last week of Orlando Cepeda. I was talking about this with a colleague at work who recently lost an uncle, a die-hard Giants fan. We commiserated over the fact that the players we followed with awe and reverence are elderly now. And as they […]
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It’s funny, isn’t it, the things that change our lives? Novelist Paul Auster, who passed away on Tuesday at the age of 77, may have owed his career to baseball. From The Guardian: The author was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1947. According to Auster, his writing life began at the age of eight […]
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Wow, it’s been a rough few days. First Fritz Peterson, now a trio of notables, for different reasons. I’ve never seen anything like this on the obituary page of The New York Times‘ website: Carl Erskine, the last of “the boys of summer,” died Tuesday at the age of 97. “Oisk” was a mainstay […]
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I’ve may have mentioned a project I’m working on: collecting obituaries of ballplayers that have appeared in The New York Times with the notion of how a player is identified in the opening lines. Here’s what Bruce Weber had to say in today’s edition, which had a “refer” on the front page. Fritz Peterson, who […]
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I look at the ages of these guys on Baseball-Reference and they’re all well into their 70s and 80s now. Where has the time gone? Jerry Grote, the backbone behind the plate for the Miracle Mets, passed away Sunday at the age of 81. Here’s his obituary by Richard Goldstein in The New York Times. […]
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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
