Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
The myopic Yankees fireballer turns 79 today. The right-hander also pitched for Orioles, Athletics, Angels, Reds, Phillies, and Senators in a career that spanned from 1954-65. Duren, who battled alcoholism as a player, wrote I Can See Clearly Now, which is a great title when you think about it. The Amazon Report: I Can See […]
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“Old Reliable” turned 95 on Feb. 20. The Amazon Report: Five O’Clock Lightning: Ruth, Gehrig, Dimaggio, Mantle and the Glory Years of the Ny Yankees
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“It was the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.” Andy Pettitte on signing professionally with the Yankees In the wake of the recent Pettitte press conference, Joel Sherman of the New York Post pulls an excerpt from his book Birth of a Dynasty: Behind the Pinstripes with the 1996 Yankees.
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Oh, right it’s Valentine’s Day. Sorry, it’s not those three little words, made famous in song by Burt Kalmar and Harry Ruby: Three little words, oh what I’d give for that wonderful phrase, To hear those three little words that’s all I’d live for the rest of my days. And what I feel in my […]
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A review about former Cleveland Indians’ players during their dog days, from LetsgoTribe.com
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Bill Veeck (Veeck as in Wreck, Thirty Tons a Day, and The Hustler’s Handbook, among others). A member of the Hall of Fame, Veeck was an innovator on a number of levels, always beleiving the fans’ enjoyment should come first. Perhaps that’s why he was so unpopular with his fellow owners. John Kruk, author of […]
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One of my first regular gigs was writing an annual baseball book roundup for BookPage, a monthly publication available at libraries and bookstores. These, along with single reviews, appeared from 1998-2004 (still can’t quite figure out what happened to that). Anyway, thanks to my new toy from Issuu.com, I was able to make a nice […]
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After a shaky first quarter, the publishing giant made a nice comeback, posting a 3.3 percent sales increase for the period ending December 31. HC has published dozens of noteworthy titles, including, just to name a few The Story of Baseball: Third Revised and Expanded Edition, by Lawrence Ritter Clearing the Bases: Juiced Players, Monster […]
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According to an AP report, Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer was awarded $890,000 for a botched cataract surgery. That such make his recovery a little easier to take. In 1996, Palmer wrote about his sometimes stormy relationship with his manager, Earl Weaver. Publisher’s Weekly called the book “a fast-moving and witty account” of their […]
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Keeping to the Hank Aaron theme: For more than 20 years, Hank Aaron quietly went about his work, doing all the things that Mantle and Mays did, but with less media attention. That is, until he came within striking distance of the most prestigious record in baseball: Babe Ruth’s 714 lifetime home runs. The two […]
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to Hank Aaron, who turns 74 on Feb. 5. Aaron is considered by many to be the rightful ruler of the home run throne. During the period during and after Hammerin’ Hank surpassed Babe Ruth’s mark of 714 set, several books describing the man and the feat were published including: I Had a Hammer, written […]
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Belatedly, to Red Schoendienst, a baseball “lifer” since 1945. Schoendienst, who played for the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Giants, and Milwaukee Braves, suffered a bout of tuberculosis as a player back in 1958 while with Milwaukee. Following a recuperative stay at a sanitarium, he made a courageous comeback that was chronicled by Al Hirshberg […]
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to Danny Thompson, a shortstop for the Minnesota Twins, with a final stop in Texas, in the early to mid-70s. He was diagnosed with leukemia in 1973, but somehow managed to keep his career going until 1976. He died at the age of 29 on Dec. 10 of that year, just months after playing in […]
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Davey Johnson, who led the Mets to their last World Championship, turned 65 yesterday, Jan. 30. In the aftermath of the ’86 series, Johnson, who set a record for most home runs by a second baseman with 43 in 1973 (and since he had never hit more than 18 before or 15 afterwards, where were […]
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What next, sponsorship by Chico’s Bail Bonds? It’s bad enough there are so many variables — three tops, three bottoms, warm-up shirts, etc., not to mention all the different hats… Marc Okkonen published a colorful history (left), which chronicles the changes — subtle and not so — for all the franchises during the 20th century. […]
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Jane Austen and baseball? Who knew? Thanks to Jim Charlton, publications director of the Society for American Baseball Research for the lead. According to the OED, the earliest reference to baseball is the Jane Austin novel, which was published in 1815, not 1818 says the OED. I talked to an OED editor a couple of […]
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Interesting that about the same time as the story comes out reporting that baseball salaries are at an all-time high, we note the birthday of Curt Flood, who was responsible for the situation, for better or worse. For better obviously would have been for the players to make a decent wage and extricate themselves from […]
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A sad reminder of a man cut down in the prime of life, the only major leaguer to die as a result of an injury sustained on the field. Chapman was hit in the head by submariner Carl Mays on August 16, 1920. His story was chronicled in The Pitch That Killed, written in 1989 […]
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Podres, who pitched the deciding game in the 1955 Fall Classic to give the Brooklyn Dodgers their only World Championship, passed away this weekend at the age of 75. Richard Goldstein’s obituary in the Jan. 14 New Yorks Times, notes his place in the hearts that borough’s baseball fans. Look in any retrospective of the […]
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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
