Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Who knew the three-time All-star catcher was a writer? I had not heard of his 2007 publication If They Only Knew, but I would definitely like to get my hands on a copy. Which leads to the inevitable question, if we only knew what? According to Wikipedia, that great bastion of scholarship Daulton holds a […]
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The former perfect game-hurler turns 47 today. Cone teamed up with baseball commentator extraordinaire Roger Angell to produce the cerebral A Pitcher’s Story: Innings with David Cone in 2001.
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Dec. 31,2010. Title Rank General The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy 1 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis, by 2 Baseball Forecaster 2011, by Ron Shandler 3 Baseball Prospectus 2011 4 Beyond […]
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Bill Lee turns 64 today. The flaky, quirky, “spacey” lefty had an interesting 14-year major league career, to put it mildly, including being called on the carpet by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn for admitting to sprinkling marijuana on his pancakes. Books by and about Lee include: Amazon.com Widgets Also marking a birthday today: “Sunday Teddy” Lyons, […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com, as of Friday, Dec. 17 at 1 p.m. Title Rank General The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy 1 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis 2 Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back, by Josh […]
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A whole bunch today, beginning with Fergie Jenkins, the Hall of Fame pitcher, who turns 68. You often read about how dark-skinned Hispanics players such as Robert Clemente or Vic Power were amazed by the prejudice they encountered in the 1950s and 1960s, coming from countries where none existed. I wonder how Jenkins felt, coming […]
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Bill Nicholson was born this date in 1914. He was considered one of the great sluggers of his generation, leading the National League in home runs in 1943 and 1944. He retired in 1953 with 235 four-baggers. With so many athletes serving in WWII. I would love to see — just out of curiosity — […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Dec. 10, at 11 a.m. Title Rank General The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy 1 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis 2 Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back, by Josh […]
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From ESPN’s Richard Durrett at the Winter Meetings in Lake Buena Vista, FL: There has been some interest in first baseman Chris Davis from a few clubs, but it’s unclear if that will turn into anything. Fans love/hate the winter meetings. They hope their team can pull off a great deal and get that sexy […]
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Larry Bowa turns 65 today. The long-time Phillies shortstop (he also played with the Cubs before batting .105 in his final year with the Mets; yeah, thanks for that) was also a short-tempered manager for the Padres and Phils. He wrote two books: Bleep: Larry Bowa Manages in 1988 and Larry Bowa: I Still Hate […]
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When I play ball, most of my teammates call me Ronnie. When I was in college, they called me Kap, a take-off on my name coupled with the Kangolish-type of headgear I always wore (at camp in the Laurentian Mountains, they called me Casquette for the same reason). When I look for those literary birthday […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Dec. 3 at Title Rank General The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy 1 Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back, by Josh Hamilton with Tim Keown 2 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by […]
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Bo Jackson turns 48 today. The pop culture icon published Bo Knows Bo, Autobiography of a Ballplayer with Dick Schaap in 1990.
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Joe “Ducky” Medwick, Hall of Fame outfielder for the “Gashouse Gang” St. Louis Cardinals and other teams, was born this date in 1911. A lifetime .324 hitter over 17 seasons, Medwick was involved in a famous (or infamous) World Series event: “His hard-charging style of play got him pulled out of the seventh game of […]
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A belated Happy Birthday to Stan Musial, who turned 90 yesterday. George Vecsey, who is working on a biography of the Hall of Fame outfielder who spent his entire 22-year career with the St. Louis Cardinals, offered his own greetings in his NY Times column yesterday. (My favorite Musial stat: 1,815 hits at home, 1,815 […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Nov. 19 at 10 a.m. Title Rank General The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy 1 Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back, by Josh Hamilton and Tim Keown 2 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, […]
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Also known by Mets fans as The Franchise, Tom Seaver turns 66 today. This is one of the “heroes” of my youth and an education that regardless of your perceived value, an athlete is basically a commodity, to be bought, sold, traded, discarded (although that term seems a bit harsh). After expressing dissatisfaction with the […]
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I have been remiss. Recent notable birthdays include Nov. 13: Mel Stottlemyre, 1941 (Pride and Pinstripes: The Yankees, Mets, and Surviving Life’s Challenges) Johnny Kling, 1875) (Johnny Kling: A Baseball Biography) Nov. 14: Jim Piersall, 1929 (Fear Strikes Out: The Jim Piersall Story, plus the movie version starring the badly miscast Anthony Perkins, Fear Strikes […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Nov. 12 at 2 p.m. Title Rank General The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy 1 Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back, by Josh Hamilton and Tim Keown 2 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, […]
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Although not together. Pie Traynor was born this date in 1898. The Hall of Fame third baseman is the subject of a recent biography — Pie Traynor: A Baseball Biography, by James Forr and David Proctor. Born in 1891, Rabbit Maranville was one of those players whose inclusion in the Hall has been a source […]
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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
