Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
♦ Depending on when you read this, and where you live, your can still take advantage of this: On Monday, October 6, at 5 pm, the New York State Museum in Albany will present John Thorn, the Official Historian of Major League Baseball, for a special evening presentation on baseball’s deep connection with New York […]
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This is a question I often ask in the face of an unusual event. At the age of 75, Ron “The Penguin” Cey has found a second act, including a podcast and new book, Penguin Power: Dodger Blue, Hollywood Lights, and a One-in-a-Million Big League Journey. Now you know how I feel about “superlative” titles, […]
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While I was chatting with Jon Leonoudakis about his latest documentary, Ball Four Turns 40, I remembered that one of my earliest interviews was with Jim Bouton. This was in the pre-Covid, Pre-Zoom days when I was doing everything on a digital tape recorder over the phone or in person (and the fidelity or lack […]
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♦ Now hear this: Stealing Home: Los Angeles, The Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between by Eric Nusbaum and Baseball’s Leading Lady: Effa Manley and the Rise and Fall of the Negro Leagues by Andrea Williams are the subjects of this “All the Backlist” podcast from Bookriot.com. From NPR’s Fresh Air (10/27), “Phillies Radio […]
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In my former job, I enjoyed a long enough commute that I was able to listen to podcasts every day: Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, On the Media, Fresh Air, Extra Hot Great (on which I was once a guest contributor for a segment on Deadwood), to name a few. Nowadays it takes me less […]
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Has it really been three weeks since the last one of these? My, my… Note: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish writing one). But close enough for government work, as the saying […]
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Headnote: One of the thing I like about the Pandemic Baseball Book Club is that it’s a kind of “one stop shopping.” Instead of posting about various authors, projects, and events, all I’m doing here is cutting and pasting their newsletter. This one was received on September 16. Enjoy. I am posting this after one of their […]
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Given that I have three books out and worked as a newspaper reporter/editor, I guess that serves as proof that I can put words together, but when it comes to art, I can barely draw a straight line with a ruler. I didn’t inherit that gene from my father, who was an excellent sketcher. Then […]
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As I mention in the conversation with comedian Adam Felber, one of the things I miss most about my previous job was the long commute which allowed me time to listen to lengthy podcasts. Chief among them was Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, the NPR news quiz show on which Felber was a regular panelist. […]
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Note: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish writing one). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes. In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast one […]
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Lost in all the drama of the continuing pandemic, presidential election conventions, and other items: August 17 marked the 100th anniversary of the only fatality on a major league baseball field. Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Naps (as the Indians were known at the time) was killed by a pitch from the New York Yankees’ […]
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Some creators who have appeared in these Conversations have admitted that their project became a chore. For others, it was just a job. And sometimes that shows up in the work. A lot of biographies seem to be showing off the amount of research the author did. Very good, but they kind of read like […]
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I’ve been collecting baseball cards for most of my life; not as much these days because I’m a grown-ass adult. For the most part, they have all been the same: a photograph surrounded by the annual change in design. More recently, a number of companies have joined Topps, coming out with multiple sets, almost ad […]
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The Pandemic Baseball Book Club has just announced a giveaway contest with il premio di tutti i premi. (That’s “the prize of all prizes” for you non-Italian speakers out there. Yes, I’m pretentious.) Just posted on Facebook today so I thought I would share it. The lucky winner of “The Pandemic Baseball Book Club Grand […]
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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
