Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
The Baseball Maniac’s Almanac: The Absolutely, Positively, and Without Question Greatest Book of Facts, Figures, and Astonishing Lists Ever Compiled, edited by Bert Randolph Sugar with Ken Samelson (Sports Publishing, 2019) I love almanacs. Where else can you find so much information — useful or trivial, interesting or no — in one volume? The Almanac […]
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About the World Series. Haven’t done one of these in a long time. I think I even neglected to write when Keith Hernandez was a guest back when his latest memoir — I’m Keith Hernandez: A Memoir — was published last year. But with the Washington Nationals winning the first championship for the nation’s capital […]
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Was driving when I heard some interviews ahead of Game Seven of the World Series. Whoever was speaking started to going into the usual things we hear in this situation. These aren’t the actual remarks, but the sentiment is definitely there. “There’s no tomorrow” “It’s do or die.” “We have to leave it all on […]
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If you are a Facebook friend, you know my feelings about our sitting president. I have tried to keep all of that out of this site, believing baseball is a refuge from the cares and woes of the outside world. Unfortunately, the reaction of the crowd to Donald Trump’s appearance at Game Five of the […]
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One of my comfort TV shows is M*A*S*H. If I’m home (and awake) when it airs on ME TV (hold the jokes, please), that’s what I’m watching. The episodes are usually played sequentially, so it was especially interesting that “A War for All Seasons” (season nine, episode six) was on tonight’s schedule. This one follows […]
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It might have been a nice idea to pair their recent cover with a Roger Angell story, but I’ll take what I can get.
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Note: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish writing one). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes. In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast one […]
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I subscribe to Scribd.com, a wonderful service which, for a flat fee, allows you to read and/or listen to thousands of books, new and old. While doing my semi-weekly search for new things, I discovered that Hank Greenberg in 1938 (as well as The Jewish Olympics: The History of the Maccabiah Games) is a part […]
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“Die Hard” Phillies fan? He wasn’t much better at BP, either.
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Note: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish writing one). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes. In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast one […]
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You will forgive a father’s pride, but my daughter, Rachel, a photo editor for iHeart Media, recently compiled this listicle on baseball bobbleheads. I still haven’t gotten over her being a Yankees fan, though. Oh well, can’t have everything.
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Just finished Ron Darling’s new book, 108 Stitches: Loose Threads, Ripping Yarns, and the Darndest Characters from My Time in the Game (with Daniel Paisner, who also worked on Darling’s 2016 book, Game 7, 1986: Failure and Triumph in the Biggest Game of My Life). It’s fairly standard fare. Darling relates stories about memorable players, […]
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Headnote: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not longer be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them. But it’ll be close enough for government work. In addition, sometimes the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast one by including a book in a category to which it […]
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I was chatting with a co-worker who is about to go to Seattle for vacation. One of the items on his agenda is attending Comic-Con. Seems he’s a collector of Funko figures. Who knew? Evidently these are like the next generation of Beanie Babies. There are probably hundreds of these things, and some of them […]
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Belated, of course. There have been seven players with that last name, but only one has documentary about him. Bob Valentine, 1876 Bobby Valentine, 1968-79 Corky Valentine, 1954-55 Ellis Valentine, 1975-85 Fred Valentine, 1959-68 Joe Valentine, 2003-05 John Valentine, 1883 The former Texas Rangers, NY Mets, and Boston Red Sox manager was the subject of […]
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I love big books and I cannot lie… Okay, enough of that. When I was in London, I stopped by Harrod’s where I found this in the sparse book department. Look at the people in the background and you can get a sense of the size of this collection of photos by Annie Leibowitz. […]
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Headnote: I’ve decided to bow to the times and include separate lists for e-books and audio books. Be aware that while many titles also appear in print versions, pretty much anyone can produce an e-book these days, so I’m not going to comment at all about the quality. As far as the audio goes, I’m […]
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You know how when your favorite media figures go on vacation, the fill the space with “reruns?” Carrying on in that grand tradition as I head over to Merry Old England, here are a couple of pertinent selections to keep me in your hearts and minds: The New British Invasion (1/2/12) Bookshelf Review: Right off […]
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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
If they can put a man on the moon… (the problems with Amazon)
February 22, 2020
why can’t Amazon searches be more specific? Every few months, I look for new titles that are coming out in the near future. For the life of me, I don’t understand why I can’t tailor my search to exclude topics I don’t want, specifically kids’ lit and “romance” novels that somehow feature baseball in their […]
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