Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
I found the headline of this article — “Will Expanded Replay Lead to More Women Umpires?” — most intriguing. Aside from the deeper question about the opportunities (or lack thereof) for “women in blue,” as discussed in this article on the Baseball Reflections blog, I have yet to hear why the adoption of technology should […]
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Happy New Year, everybody! One of the “resolutions” I’m making this year is to challenge myself more. This mans doing things outside my comfort zone and pushing a bit more. This will include a return to the Podcast edition on a regular basis” and more “intellectual” pursuits than I might have considered in the past. […]
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W. P. Kinsella was awarded the 2011 Jack Graney Award, presented by the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame for a “significant contribution to the game of baseball in Canada through a life’s work or for a singular outstanding achievement.” The award is named for one of the first Canadian baseball players to enjoy success in the […]
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The Classic, a new outlet for quality sports items (what Grantland was supposed to be, according to their original mission statement), is quickly becoming one of my favorite sites and will continue to be as long as they keep posting stuff like this: An appreciation for the three volume The Baseball Hall of Shame, by […]
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The veteran player, announcer, and commentator has been selected as the 2012 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually for excellence in baseball broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. “Tim McCarver has been the face and voice of baseball’s biggest moments on national television,” said Hall of Fame President […]
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Musial turned 91 yesterday. I kind of feel badly for him. Although he’s surely one of the all-time greats, the contemporary fans rarely hears his name mentioned in the same breath as a Willie Mays or a Mickey Mantle, even though Musial’s stats are comparable, if not better. Books on Musial include: Stan Musial: Baseball’s […]
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Before he began working with an actual publisher, James used to type out The Baseball Analyst on a bi-monthly basis and make copies as needed for distribution. How times have changed. Like SABR’s annual publications, The National Pastime and Baseball Research Journal, the Analysts were contributor-driven. The first issue contains articles such as “Ballpark Effects […]
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The former pitcher and author of two no-hitters for the St. Louis Cardinals passed away Nov. 3. He lent his name to a book of anecdotes about his former team (he also pitched briefly for the Houston Astros) in Bob Forsch’s Tales from the Cardinal Dugout, published in 2003.
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by Jimmy Piersall with Al Hirshberg. Atlantic Monthly Press/Little, Brown and Company, 1955. Jimmy Piersall was a two-time All-Star who sent 17 seasons in the Majors…and one summer in a mental institution. That’s the crux of this underrated autobiography from the mid-50s, well ahead of its time in discussing the issue of mental illness. Piersall’s […]
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Sometimes I wonder, with all the new books coming out every year, why anyone would want to read something they’ve already read before. So many books, so little time. But while working on the 501 Book project I came across several titles in my library that I had never read, which no doubt led to […]
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I was doing some research for the 501 project and thought I’d take a look at what eBay has to offer. Turns out, it’s a lot. More than 4,000 items came up for the search term “baseball books” and it was interesting to see the make-up. Although I didn’t take a deliberate count, the vast […]
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The good news: More than half way to the goal of 501 books. The bad news: it takes me away from the blog. Oh well, hang around. It will be worth it in the end. In the meantime, here are a few items for your consideration: Out of Left Field, Rebecca Alpert’s history of Jewish […]
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While doing research for my project, I came across this list, published in 2002, of the 100 top sports books of all time as chosen by the editors of Sports Illustrated. Of those 100, “only” 32 were about baseball. The nerve. Anyway, here’s the SI piece, trimmed to just baseball titles, with commentary from the […]
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Dickson, author of several outstanding books on the game, not the least of which is his eponymous Baseball Dictionary, was recently honored at an event sponsored by the Baseball Reliquary. While Robert Alomar, Bert Blyleven, and Pat Gillick were in Cooperstown last weekend, the Reliquary was having an “induction day” of its own in southern […]
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By Christy Mathewson, 1912 A “pinch” is a tight spot, when one is expected to suck it up and give it that extra 10 percent; Mathewson had to do that a time or two in an era when starting pitchers were expected to go the distance. Hard to believe that Mathewson, one of the original […]
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On this date: In 1941 at the All-Star Game at Briggs Stadium, Ted Williams, hitting .405 at the break, homers off Chicago Cubs P Claude Passeau with two out and two on in the ninth inning to give the American League a dramatic 7 – 5 victory. (Relevant title: The Midsummer Classic: The Complete History […]
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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
Bookshelf review: Woman Characters in Baseball Literature
September 2, 2011
A Critical Study, by Kathleen Sullivan. McFarland, 2005. Novels and feature films tend to find comfort in stock characters. Stories about celebrities in particular focus on two or three types of women. You have your temptress who, for various reasons, wants to keep the protagonist from succeeding at his mission. For baseball materials you have […]
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