Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Peter Uberroth replaces Bowie Kuhn as baseball’s commissioner, the sixth since the office was instituted following the Black Sox Scandal. What follows is a review I wrote for the SABR Bibliography Committee newsletter in 1999 following the release of Jerome Holtzman’s The Commissioners. * * * Holtzman, one of baseball’s premier sportswriters of our time, […]
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Born this day in 1860, Ward formed The Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players, the first players union, in 1885 and sought to fight the reserve clause that bound a player to his team in perpetuity. If some of today’s modern athletes don’t know about the contributions of Jackie Robinson (and when I say “some […]
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Ott was born this date in 1909, Berg in 1902. Ott, who spent his entire career with the New York Giants, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1951 on the strength of 511 home runs (the National league record for many years), 1,860 runs batted in and a .304 batting average. He died […]
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Born Feb. 29, 1904. A prominent member of the Cardinal’s “Gas House Gang” of the 1930s, Martin had a .298 average over his 13 year career, all spent with St. Louis. He’s one of 12 major league players who were leap year babies. The Amazon Report: The Gashouse Gang: How Dizzy Dean, Leo Durocher, Branch […]
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According to NationalPastime.com: Effa Manley, former Negro League team owner, become the first woman elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The co-owner of the Newark Eagles is one 17 former players and executives elected by a special committee using new statistics from the Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues. The Amazon Report: Queen of the […]
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Grover Alexander Cleveland was born this day in 1887. Old Pete, who was indicted into the Hall of Fame in 1938, has his signature moment when he came in to fan Tony Lazzeri with the bases loaded and the Cardinals nursing a 3-2 lead in the seventh inning of Game 7 of the 1926 World […]
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One of the true gentlemen of the game turns 89 today. When it comes to recognition, Irvin always seemed to play second second fiddle behind Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, and Willie Mays, among others. He played only eight season, arriving with the New York Giants in 1949 at the age of 30. But he never […]
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This piece originally ran in NINE. I thought, with all the buzz about the Cubs wining the 2008 pennant, and perhaps more, it was time to post it. Bear in mind that some new books on the team have been published since, including Glenn Stout’s The Cubs. The Million-to-One Team: Why the Chicago Cubs Haven’t […]
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With the Academy Awards on the horizon, I thought it would be appropriate to mention some of the excellent books that discuss the twin American treasures of baseball and the movies. Baseball and the movies are like peanut butter and chocolate: they were meant to go together. Baseball is the eternal struggle of man seeking […]
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The Yankees first African-American player would have been 70 today. One of Casey Stengel’s great — if not politically correct — lines was, “As Peter Golenbock noted in Dynasty, “When I finally get a [black player], I get the only one who can’t run.” After his death, Howard’s wife, Arlene, published Elston and Me: The […]
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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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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
