Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Pedro Martinez turns 39 today. Hard to believe he couldn’t find somebody to take a chance on him in 2010. He was the subject for numerous children’s books in both English and Spanish, as well as Pedro, Carlos, and Omar: The Story of a Season in the Big Apple and the Pursuit of Baseball’s Top […]
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Hats off to Mr. Brosnan, who penned the first of the “in-season” adult autobios/memoirs with The Long Season in 1960. Like Jim Bouton, whose Ball Four was released in 1970, Brosnan was considered something of a turncoat for “revealing” the secrets of the locker room. And this was without all the sex and foul language! […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of 10 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 22. 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 2 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael […]
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The other “Chairman of the Board” turns 82 today, a day after the birthday of his Yankee friend and teammate, Mickey Mantle. In his last two seasons with the Yankees, Ford — inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1974 — had a record of 4-9. Subtract that from his career totals and he would […]
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Several high-profile ballplayers share Oct. 20 as a birthday. Tops on the list: Mickey Mantle. There are dozens of books about The Mick. Many of the more recent ones examines his flaws as a person well as his strengths as an athlete, including Jane Leavy’s just-published The Last Boy. Since this book — and by […]
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The veteran Tigers’ strongman, Horton turns 68 today. Horton played most of his 18-year career in Detroit, leading them to the 1968 World Championship with 36 home runs and 86 RBIs. He finished with 325 homers, 1,163 ribbies, and a .273 batting average and was one of the most feared batters at the time. Grant […]
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Tim McCarver is either a genius or an annoyance, depending on your point of view. For some, he’s a keen analyst, for others, he just one of those ex-player blowhards with whom the modern rarely finds favor. He’s been accused of trying to make the game too “deep inside,” although there are plenty of fans […]
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The Hall of Fame pitcher (and former underwear model) turns 65 today. Palmer published his memoirs — Together We Were Eleven Foot Nine: The Twenty-Year Friendship of Hall of Fame Pitcher Jim Palmer and Orioles Manager Earl Weaver — in 1996.
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Art Shamsky, a favorite of Jewish baseball fans everywhere, turns 69 today. I ran into Shamsky last Sunday at the memorial service for Maury Allen. Still looking good and hoping for a resurrection of professional baseball in Israel; he was manager of the Modi’in Miracle in 2007, the only season for the Israel Baseball League. […]
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To Hall of Famer Joe Cronin, who was born this date in 1906. Cronin was one of those baseball lifers who excelled as a player and then went on to have a lengthy career as a manager and front office executive. Joe Cronin: A Life in Baseball, by Mark Armour From Sandlots to League President: […]
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Happy birthday, Joe. Can’t believe you’re 70 today. The title of his book — Joe, You Coulda Made Us Proud, written with Berry Stainback and published in 1975 — was perfect. He was pretty good — a three time All-Star and Golve Glove winner — but had the bad timing to be on the Yankees […]
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From NorthernNJ.com, this story about author Kal Wagenheim and the re-release of his 1970s biography, Clemente!
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of 10 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 8. 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 Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu: John Updike on Ted Williams, […]
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Can’t believe the season is almost over. The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of 2 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 1. Title Rank General Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu: John Updike on Ted Williams, by John Updike 1 The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy 2 Moneyball: […]
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To Hall of Famer Rod Carew, who turns 65 today. Carew, by Carew with Ira Berkow Rod Carew’s Art and Science of Hitting Also marking the occasion, Mark McGwire, who perhaps could have been a Hall of Famer, turns 47. There were two “waves” of books about Big Mac. The first came in 1998 when […]
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Happy birthday to Johnny Pesky, inventor of Fenway Park’s Pesky Pole, 91 years young today. Pesky was the author or subject of several books about the Red Sox, including Diary of a Red Sox Season Mr. Red Sox: The Johnny Pesky Story, by Bill Nowlin Few and Chosen: Defining Red Sox Greatness Across the Eras […]
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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
Once in a lifetime: Ted Williams’ perfect coda
September 27, 2010
A handful of players have been fortunate enough to enjoy a storybook ending to their career: ending with a bang. None have done it with as much mystique as Ted Williams. The Splendid Splinter played his last major league game against the Baltimore Orioles on September 28, 1960. A dreary affair, with nothing on the […]
Tagged as: John Updike, Ted Williams
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