Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
* The Book Corner posted this review of Stephen King’s Blockade Billy. Upshot: The book “will definitely satisfy Stephen King readers as well as those who don’t normally go for the sort of stories on which he made his reputation. And it’s closer to those kinds of stories than the story that fills out the […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, June 25. Title Rank General Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis 1 Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball, by Bill Madden 2 The Game from Where I Stand: A Ballplayer’s Inside View, by Doug Glanville 3 The Bullpen Gospels: Major […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, June 18. Title Rank General Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball, by Bill Madden 1 The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime, by Jason Turbow with Michael Duca 2 Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend, by James […]
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Yesterday, actually (close enough for jazz), that Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho changed how the movie industry dealt with sex and violence, for better or worse. There are several interesting analyses, including David Thomson’s The Moment of Psycho: How Alfred Hitchcock Taught America to Love Murder, which I’m reading at the moment, as well as this from […]
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This top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, June 4. Title Rank General Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball, by Bill Madden 1 The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime, by Jason Turbow with Michael Duca 2 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, […]
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Readers of the Bookshelf know I don’t usually post news about books for younger readers, but I’ll make an exception for ex-ballplayers who author said books. In this case, it’s former Cardinals outfielder Brian Jordan who recently published his second children’s book, I Told You I Can Play. Proceeds from the sales of the book […]
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This top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, May 14. Title Rank General The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime, by Jason Turbow and Michael Duca 1 The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran, by Dirk Hayhurst 2 Moneyball: The Art […]
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The Hall of Fame catcher (and my Montclair “neighbor”) was born this date in 1925. Ain’t it amazing how many books by/about him — on basically the same stuff — there are, including, but not limited to:
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to Dick Williams, born this date in 1929. Williams published a memoir/autobio No More Mr. Nice Guy: A Life in Hardball (with Bill Plashcke) in 1990. He was also one of the baseball personalities interviewed in Fay Vincent’s latest collection, It’s What’s Inside the Lines That Counts : Baseball Stars of the 1970s and 1980s […]
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The Hall of Fame pitcher passed away today at the age of 83. Roberts was still in the majors when I was coming to the game. I can picture one his last baseball cards in my mind (and here on the page). One of the things I always admired about him — especially in this […]
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there are scores of guys with far less talent, but who make up the backbone of the game. Think about it: even if your favorite team is lucky to have, let’s say, seven or eight all-stars, that still leaves 18 regular Joes. Norm Miller was such a player. He managed to stick around for 10 […]
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This week’s best-selling baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, April 9. Title Rank General The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran, by Dirk Hayhurst 1 The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime, by Jason Turbow and Michael Duca 2 Willie Mays: […]
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This week’s best-selling baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, April 2. Title Rank General The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran, by Dirk Hayhurst 1 The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime, by Jason Turbow and Michael Duca 2 Willie Mays: […]
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This week’s best-selling baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, March 19. S Title Rank General Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend, by James S. Hirsch 1 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis 2 Baseball Prospectus 2010 3 Kiss It Good-Bye: The Mystery, The Mormon, and the Moral of […]
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This week’s best-selling baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Feb. 12. Title Rank General Baseball Prospectus 2010 1 Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend, by James S. Hirsch 2 Baseball America 2010 Prospect Handbook: The Comprehensive Guide to Rising Stars from the Definitive Source on Prospects 3 2010 Baseball Forecaster (Ron Shandler’s Baseball […]
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This week’s best-selling baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Feb. 5. Title Rank General Baseball Prospectus 2010 1 Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend, by James S. Hirsch 2 Baseball America 2010 Prospect Handbook: The Comprehensive Guide to Rising Stars from the Definitive Source on Prospects 3 2010 Baseball Forecaster (Ron Shandler’s Baseball […]
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How often was his seminal novel of youth struggling for identity and acceptance mistaken for a baseball story? Maybe that’s because of former major league catcher — and later TV personality and broadcaster — Bob Uecker’s homonymic book. (Quick aside: In the mid-90s, I worked part time for one of those statistical companies that track […]
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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
* The Bouton-Canseco connection
January 28, 2010
Newsday’s Mark Herrmann tries to make a literary one between the author of the seminal Ball Four with Juiced and Vindicated. I agree with his observation that both former ballplayers (actually Bouton came out with his book while he was still in the Majors) were considered ” pariah[s] among baseball people for having taken aim […]
Tagged as: Jim Bouton, Jose Canseco, Newsday
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