Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Baseball Reflections posted this review of High Fives, Pennant Drives, and Fernandomania: A Fan’s History of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Glory Years (1977-1981), by Paul Haddad. Just in time for Opening Day in Japan (which just passed. Sorry for the late post): baseball terms in Japanese! Another late post: GQ ran this profile on broadcasting […]
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Lenny Dykstra was sentenced to three years “in a California state prison after pleading no contest to grand theft auto and providing a false financial statement.” Dykstra published his memoir Nails: The Inside Story of an Amazin’ Season shortly after the Mets’ 1986 World Championship.
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As Dan Epstein over at Big Hair & Plastic Grass reminds us, “On this date in 1973, Yankee pitchers Fritz Peterson (front) and Mike Kekich (second from left) shock their team, baseball, and the country with the announcement that they’ve swapped families — their wives, children and pets are all included in the deal.” Seems […]
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Reportedly, the four-time All-Star and MVP fell off the wagon earlier this week, hoisting a drink (or more?) at a pub in Dallas. Fellow Texas Ranger Ian Kinsler supposedly came to the establishment to convince his teammate to leave. Of course, I feel sorry for Hamilton, if all this is true; I’m a benefit-of-the-doubt kind […]
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Because you always need to have a career plan. R.A. Dickey, he of Mt. Kilimanjaro fame, will publish Wherever I Wind Up: My Quest for Truth, Authenticity and the Perfect Knuckleball (with Wayne Coffey) in March via Blue Rider Press, a Penguin imprint. You can get samples of Dickey’s writing (about his recent adventures) from […]
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Take heart, Houston. You may have the worst team in the Majors this season, but you can relive past glorious and otherwise amuse yourselves by reading these Astros-related titles, posted by Ray Kerby and Darrell Pittman on AstrosDaily.com.
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A (Winning) Season with the MIT Baseball Team, by Brooks C. Mendell. Aventine Press, 2009 This one has been sitting on the shelf for awhile, but with the 501 project in full swing, I’m trying to catch up with a vengeance, looking for little gems among the bigger fish. And we have a winnah! Beaverball […]
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Hearn, who played for the Mets and Royals in a career that lasted just three years to do health issues, turns 52 today. He published Conquering Life’s Curves: Baseball, Battles & Beyond, about his battle with kidney disease, in 1997. Also marking the date is Ron Blomberg, 63. I’ve written about him frequently over at […]
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As I continue to do research for my own project, I get a kick when I find some old material that confirms I’m on the right track with some of my selections. Hey, it’s nice to find validation rom time to time, right? So today’s blast from the past is this brief appearance by the […]
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While doing research for my project, I came across this list, published in 2002, of the 100 top sports books of all time as chosen by the editors of Sports Illustrated. Of those 100, “only” 32 were about baseball. The nerve. Anyway, here’s the SI piece, trimmed to just baseball titles, with commentary from the […]
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but the difference in weight and shape can mess up your ceremonial first pitch, as we see here for former Major Leaguer and current author Doug Glanville.
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Combining two themes here to bring you some recent podcasts. * Craig Robinson, author of the new Flip Flop Fly Ball: An Infographic Baseball Adventure (See all Humor Books), was on the July 19 edition of Slate’s Hang Up and Listen. There are several excellent questions about Robinson’s though processes as he comes up with […]
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Harvey Araton published this piece on “Nails” in today’s New York Times. One of the failed projects the ex-ballplayer was working on was The Player’s Club, a magazine designed specifically for recently retired athletes. Suffice it to say that it never really got off the ground. I’m almost willing to bet that Dykstra has AADD. […]
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From the Baseball-Reference.com Bullpen: San Francisco’s Gaylord Perry connects for his first Major League homer, to beat the Dodgers, 7 – 3. The previous year, Giants’ manager Alvin Dark had remarked that “They’ll put a man on the moon before he hits a home run.” Perry’s homer comes about 20 minutes after the club house […]
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By Christy Mathewson, 1912 A “pinch” is a tight spot, when one is expected to suck it up and give it that extra 10 percent; Mathewson had to do that a time or two in an era when starting pitchers were expected to go the distance. Hard to believe that Mathewson, one of the original […]
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The Hall of Fame manager died today at the age of 82. UPDATE: Richard Goldstein’s obituary for Williams in today’s NY Times. Williams won back-to-back World Championships with the Oakland As in 1972-73. He also led the Boston Red Sox to their “Impossible Dream” pennant in 1967 in his first year as a manager at […]
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Two Men, One Call, and a Game for Baseball History by Armando Galarraga and Jim Joyce, with Daniel Paisner. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2011 One of the highlights of the 2010 Major League season was something that didn’t happen. Armando Galarraga, a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, did not get his perfect game — a no-hit, […]
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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
Bit and pieces
August 1, 2011
The good news: More than half way to the goal of 501 books. The bad news: it takes me away from the blog. Oh well, hang around. It will be worth it in the end. In the meantime, here are a few items for your consideration: Out of Left Field, Rebecca Alpert’s history of Jewish […]
Tagged as: Joe DiMaggio, Lou Perini, Mark Attanasio, Negro league baseball, Rebecca Alpert
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