Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Google Books now includes magazines. A quick search for the phrase “baseball” returns almost 1,300 hits, including such sources as Ebony, Jet, Baseball Digest, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics (going all the way back to the early 1900s), and New York Magazine. Presumably more publications will be added. If nothing else, it’s an interesting look to […]
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A lot of fans proably forget that the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown is also a library. I spent a great week up there several years ago, doing research for a book about baseball during the Korean War years. the staff couldn’t have been nicer, and the access of walking around like I belonged was […]
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Having received Mike Shropshire’s latest book about the abysmal early years of the Texas Rangers, I am reminded how I’ve always wondered how the print media covers teams that don’t play in the drama capitals of New York, Boston, Chicago, or Los Angeles. What can you say about the Royals or the Pirates or Orioles […]
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The School Library Journal Web site reports: Just in time for baseball season, the Library of Congress (LOC) has assembled a Web clearinghouse devoted to America’s pastime. The simply named “Historic Baseball Resources” features multimedia offerings from the library’s vast trove, including rare images of early games and the original sheet music to “Take Me […]
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Eric Seidman, a senior at Penn State, has written Bridging the Statistical Gap, which “takes readers inside the sport’s box scores and stat sheets,” according to this article in the university’s Daily Collegian Online. The book is expected to be released in May. Some topics include: Great Batting Average Debate: What batting average does and […]
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The “Geek Gestlat” blog on the Cnet News site features this bit on the physics of baseball, courtesy of Paul Doherty of the Exploratorium, the San Francisco-based “museum of science, art and human perception.” Doherty talks about — and demonstrates through videos — the flight of pitched balls and the “impact” bats have on them, […]
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Sports Illustrated launched its new digital archive earlier this week. After a quick glance, and realizing it’s still in beta, I have mixed feelings. Bear in mind I’m only talking about the baseball here, but I’m assuming the same applies for everything else. As of today, there are 14,985 articles, 3,750 pictures, 69 “galleries” (photo […]
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This library Web site suggests that stat-heads have a long and proud history in Spalding’s Baseball Guide and Official League Book for 1895 which is available on-line thanks to the Guttenberg Project via Internet Archive.
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Herewith, the program highlights for the 15th annual Nine Spring Training Conference held in Tucson, Arizona from March 13-16. Lee Lowenfish, author of Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman, is the keynote speaker for the meeting, which will also pay tribute to the late Bill Kirwin, the journal’s former editor. Presentations include: Frantic Frankie Lane The […]
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In 1997, I wrote the following annotated bibliography about the integration of baseball for the MultiCultural Review, reproduced here in honor of Black History Month. It should be noted that there have been several additional books published during the interim on both African-American players and the Negro Leagues, including three biographies about Curt Flood, and […]
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McFarland Publishers has a unique place in the world of baseball literature. Known for their eclectic academic work in the arts, sciences, humanities, etc. they also specialize in topics that might be considered extremely narrow in interest within the national pastime. In fact, it seems comfortable to say that if it were not for this […]
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Compiled by Peter L. de Rosa. Includes works prior to 2000 in the categories of: General Histories Reference Works Anthologies and Collections Biographies Memoirs and Oral Histories Season and Team Histories Novels and Related works Specialized Works Periodicals Simulations and Games Movies and Documentaries
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Most on-line editions of print magazines have a search component. Some offer full-text versions of their articles, while others (the mean ones) only post abstracts, requiring the curious to either pay for a subscription (either full or “web-only”) or the individual item. I’ve done some preliminary research and will be posting the results from time […]
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by Mike Shannon (McFarland, 2007) As one who collects baseball books, I was happy to come across Mike Shannon’s latest offering. After reading it, however, I find myself depressed, contrary to the author’s philosophy. I — along with everyone else, according to the author — will never be a “completist,” that is one who acquires […]
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Reprinted in its entirety from an e-mail I received. Dear Researchers and Educators, I am writing to inform you about a new journal that may be of interest to you for your own scholarly research or for your students and colleagues. Black Ball is a peer-reviewed journal to be published twice each year by McFarland […]
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From the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, an extensive interview with the artists James Bassler, son of major leaguer catcher Johnny Bassler who played from 1913-14 with the Cleveland Naps and, after a seven year absence, returned for another seven years with the Detroit Tigers (1921-27). He compiled a lifetime .304 batting average with a […]
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The New York Public Library is hosting this marvelous collection of old-tyme baseball images. Some are in uniform, others more formal, and others staged “action” shots. The Albert G. Spalding Collection includes photographs, prints, drawings, caricatures, and printed illustrations related to baseball and other sports gathered by the early baseball player and sporting-goods tycoon A. […]
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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
* At the risk of tooting my own horn…
November 26, 2008
Thirteen years in the making. In 1995, I delivered my first “scholarly paper.” It was at Hoftsra University’s centennial celebration of Babe Ruth’s birth and it was a hoot. I spent three days there, listening to all sorts of presentations, visiting exhibits and finally — nervously — making my own. My topic was “The Books […]
Tagged as: Babe Ruth
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