Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
In addition to the thousands upon thousands of baseball cards, Bob had a handful of baseball publications, most of them pertaining to fantasy baseball with a few Bill James Abstracts thrown in. This caught my I so I asked for it. More than any other issues, I think I enjoyed the March edition of Baseball […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Charles M. Conlon, the famous baseball photographer (he might have shot other subjects, too, but I only know him from baseball), produced some wonderful close-up portraits, a number of which are included in a couple of collections: Baseball’s Golden Age: The Photographs of Charles M. Conlon and The Big Show: Charles M. Conlon’s Golden Age […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
I don’t know what I found more bizarre: the fact that former MLB pitcher Esteban Loaiza had been accused by his late wife, Jenni Rivera, of “having a relationship” with her daughter, Chiquis, or that he’s coming out with a book. Loaiza pitcher for eight teams in a 13-year career that netted him a record of […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The “Just a Bit Outside” blog on the Fox Sports site would have us believe that Joe Black, the one-year wonder for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1952, is the baseball equivalent of Harper Lee, whose only published work — to date — was a classic. From the entry: What we’re looking for here is a […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
And, let’s not forget Anthony Perkins. These three popular actors made baseball films that were memorable for one reason or another and none of them displayed an ounce of athletic talent portraying, respectively, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, and Jim Piersall. Sure there were others who probably should have turned down such demanding roles, but those were […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
I hope that means “hooray!” You never know how things might change subtly with Google translate. Anyway, this comes from the Anime News Network (“The Internet’s most trusted anime news source”): Takuya Mitsuda will continue his long-running Major manga series on Shogakukan‘s Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine in March. This will be the first new chapter […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
You ever have one of the experiences where a picture falls off a wall for no reason? Then you find out later that the person in the photo has had an accident or worse? This just happened as I was working on blog posts: The mini-bobblehead of Alex Rodriguez, then a member of the Texas […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
I don’t know about you, but I didn’t particularly care for Stephen King’s novella, Blockade Billy. I found his co-authored Faithful with Stewart O’Nan much more in my alley. In this Bangor Daily News piece, he discusses his affinity for the game, among other items. Haruki Murakami, author of such best-sellers as 1Q84, also loves […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Just finished a review of the new John Wayne bio for Bookreporter, so I thought it would be appropriate to remind you that he starred in a 1955 television production of Rookie of the Year, aired some 36 years after the Black Sox scandal, which serves as an underscoring theme. Directed by John Ford, the […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Do cameras still use hot-shoe flash attachments? Anyway, this was going around Facebook yesterday so I thought I’d pass it along. For only $3,995, you can be the first kid on the block to own this (the link brings you to the page where each of the 134 cards are identified): First edition, first and […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
I participated in this seemingly futile exercise to determine “The 25 most important people in baseball,” as posted by the Baseball Past and Present blog. Not players. Not executives. Not men. People. This opens the door for the consideration of personalities like Effa Manley, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Eleanor Engle, Hilda Chester, Ila Borders, Jackie Mitchell, […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Not a hard-core comic book guy, so I don’t quite get why there are two new books about the breakthrough DC character — the 75th anniversary doesn’t come for another couple of years — but in thumbing through Jill Leopre’s The Secret History of Wonder Woman, I discovered there was baseball content in the second […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Proving that you can connect any two things. Also an older link, which might have been more topical had I posted a month ago, but right now it’s down to Jaime Lanister vs. Bran Stark. This worked out pretty well: GoT has a lot of royalty in it and also a couple of giants. I […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Here’s my podcast listening schedule: Monday: Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me Tuesday: Extra Hot Great Friday: Pop Culture Happy Hour Wednesday and Thursday are used for whatever other programs are around that I pay attention to depending on the topi (Fresh Air, The Leonard Lopate Show, The Sporkful, The Gist, etc.) One episode of the […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
When I make my regular Amazon searches, I get annoyed at having to wade through a lot of superfluous material. If they can put a man on the moon, why can’t they have a mechanism that will allow me to filter out books targeted towards juvenile readers? That would significantly reduce the time I have […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
My old friend Steven Rosch posted a link to an SI article about the next big thing in baseball equipment on my Facebook timeline. I know you have to move along with the times, but this, this is an abomination. I understand not all gloves are made of leather; you frequently read about poor kids […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Is something I’ve never been into. I find very little “real” about it. And I don’t mean to keep on picking on Brandon Steiner (see here and here), but I accidentally came on his eponymous SNY show, The Hookup with Brandon Steiner, last night. I say “accidentally” because my on-air TV guide said it was […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Leave it to the professionals. Post by MLB.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
I understand that MLB wants to honor the members of our armed forces and I’m all for it, even if the cynical side of me thinks this is just about piece of merchandise to market. (I believe the profits from those sales should go to military support organizations.) But in all honesty, I think they’re […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Either I’m more sensitive to it or it’s just my imagination (running away with me). There have been, of late, a common theme in baseball novels, especially self-published: substance abuse, whether alcohol or PED. Just this year we have: High and Inside, by Russell Rowland Catching Lightning Without the Bottle, by Timothy F. Bouvine Nine […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
is available on Amazon.com,
In my most recent "day job," I was the sports and features editor for a weekly New Jersey newspaper, where I hosted another blog. Busy, busy, busy.
I did a profile piece on the award-winning cartoonist Arnold Roth and he was nice enough to "immortalize" me.
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
