Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Fans have been talking incessantly about the Cubs’ failure to win a World Championship in the last 100 years. What often goes overlooked is how they got to that one. If it weren’t for the infamous baserunning blunder by a New York Giants rookie (actually playing in his second season), the Cubs’ futility record would […]
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It may not have the same resonance as Yankee Stadium. It may even be a pit. But people seem to forget that Shea Stadium is closing, too. And the Yankees would do well to remember that they were guests there while their own “House” was being put back in order. Shea Stadium (NY) (Images of […]
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Duke Magazine published this profile on Bill Werber, at 100 the oldest living ex-major leaguer, in its Sept./Oct. issue. He wrote about his experiences a few years ago in Memories of a Ballplayer: Bill Werber and Baseball in the 1930s. In yesterday’s Yankees-Orioles game, Emilio Navarro, who turns 103 on Sept. 26, threw out the […]
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Zack Hample, who has made a cottage industry about snagging foul and batting practice balls at the stadium, pulled off a coup this week when he caught home runs on consecutive nights at Yankee Stadium. Evidently it’s a rare feat, according to this profile in Newsday. Hample is the author of How to Snag Major […]
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General: Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis Yankee Stadium: The Official Retrospective, by Al Santasiere Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan’s Guide for Beginners, Semi-experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks, by Zack Hample. The Cubs: The Complete Story of Chicago Cubs Baseball, by Glenn Stout and Richard Johnson Science of Hitting, […]
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September can be a happy or bittersweet month. For the minor league call-ups, this might be the start of a major league career or a mere cup of coffee. For those who have been in the game a long while, it might mark the end of their time in the bigs. Among those who made […]
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How will the Mets (and history) treat Jerry Manuel> The “interim” manager took over for the beleaguered Willie Randolph early this season, when the team was hovering under the .500 mark. Yes, Randolph was the leader of a bunch of underachievers, but almost everyone agrees that the way in which his dismissal was handled was, […]
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Aug. 30 is a red letter day for the game, so I’m combining several elements: Happy birthday: Ted Williams, aka, The Splendid Splinter (Nickname of the Day), was born this date in 1918. Welcome to the Big Leagues: Ty Cobb (1905) and Keith Hernandez (1974) began their storied careers on Aug. 30. Fare thee well: […]
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(Not to be confused with “Sweet Lou” Johnson of the Los Angeles Dodgers of the 1960s) Lou Pinella, now in the midst of guiding the Cubs to the promised land of the post-season, was born this date in 1943. Younger fans don’t realize what a good player he was “in the day: a .291 average […]
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The Hall of Famer, both as a ballplayer and humanitarian, would have been an unbelievable 74 today. As is the case for many such inspirational icons, the books are split between books for adults and and juveniles. Clemente is important on many levels: as an elite athlete, as a role model for kids, and as […]
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Roseboro, a catcher primarily with the Los Angeles Dodgers during the 1960s, died this date in 2002. He published an autobiography, Glory Days with the Dodgers, and Other Days with Others, in 1978. Unfrtunately, the signature moment in Roseboro’s career might have come when pitcher Juan Marichal took a bat to his head during one […]
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From BookClubClassics.com, this list of fiction and non-fiction classics. No reviews, just links to Amazon.
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Baseball Films in the Capra Tradition by Wes D. Gehring, McFarland, 2004 Gehring, a professor of film at Ball State University and associate media editor for USA Today magazine, combines th best of both worlds as he examines several baseball features, comparing them with the works of Frank Capra. For example, these baseball films mirror […]
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In 2006, Roy Green published 101 Reasons to Love the Yankees and 101 Reasons to Love the Red Sox. Released by Stewart, Tabori, and Chang, these were nice little books (a similar book about the Mets also came out that year), full of pictures and brief texts about the author’s favorite moments and people for […]
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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
* Define "dynasty"
September 24, 2008
The Red Sox won their game last night against the Indians, bringing an end to the Yankees’ string, which reaches back to 1995. Some would say that any sports season is a failure if you don’t come away with a championship. Others disagree, believing it’s all relative (just ask any franchise that’s been mired in […]
Tagged as: New York Yankees
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