Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
My Life in the Game, by Dustin Pedroia wuth Edward J. Delaney. SSE, 2009. In past entries, I’ve written about “flavor of the month,” a memoir or autobio written by a player with limited Major League experience who tries to capitalize on a special event or a great season? Born to Play falls into this […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Conversations with 17 Former Jewish Major League Baseball players, by Dave Cohen. Havenhurst Books, 2010. Hot on the heels, but apparently unconnected with the new documentary Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story, we have this new oral history collection conducted by Cohen, described on the publisher’s website as “the familiar radio voice of Georgia […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Baseball in Folklore and Fiction, by Tristram Potter Coffin Rvive Books, 2010 Originally published as The Old Ball Game in 1971, The Mudville Heritage considers the hugely different way in which baseball was portrayed in the early to mid half of the 20th century. Coffin, emeritus professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, takes […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
by Peter Golenbock. The Lyons Press, 2007. When 7 came out a few years ago, many sportswriters — especially in the New York area — considered it a shande (shame). How could Golenbock — who had heretofore published only non-fiction — have besmirched the character of the late lamented Mickey Mantle with this trashy, borderline […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
And Ozzie, too, of course. Made a major faux pas, thanks to the evil Facebook, which notified me that Logan Miller, whose film Touching Home garnered major praise, was also celebrating a birthday today. What it didn’t mention (duh!) was that it was also his twin brother and collaborator, Noah’s, birthday as well. The management […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
My review of the new Stephen King novella (plus an additional story) is up on Bookreporter.com. For your convenience, I’ve reprinted it below: There was plenty of buzz in the mystery/thriller/horror and baseball fiction communities when it was announced that Stephen King would release a novella titled BLOCKADE BILLY. Online book merchants quickly took pre-orders […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
by Billy Lombardo (Overlook, 2010) The last couple of titles I’ve blogged about have father and son issues (Steinbrenner and Home, Away). So, with Father’s Day coming up, I figured I complete the trifecta. The great love of Henry Granville’s life is baseball. It is a time-honored tradition he knows he will pass on to […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
by Jeff Gillenkirk. Chin Music Press, 2010 Just in time for Father’s Day, Home, Away is the tale of the sacrifices we make for our children. In the case, it’s a multi-million dollar contract that pitcher Jason Thibodeuax is giving up to raise his wayward son, Rafe, the product of the first romantic encounter the […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The Life and Thunderous Career of Baseball’s Mr. October, by Dayn Perry. Morrow, 326 Pages, $25.99 Whatever words are used to describe Reginald Martinez Jackson, the Hall of Fame outfielder for the Oakland Athletics and New York Yankees (with less effectual stints on the Angels and Orioles), “complex” has to be among them. And that’s […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging ’70s, by Dan Epstein. Thomas Dunne, 2010. For many fans of a certain age, the 7os are too quickly becoming “the good old days. ” Man, that sounds strange. But as the fan base changes in demographics, books like Big Hair and Plastic Grass will […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
And Other Tales from the Edge of Baseball Fandom, by Emma Span (Villard, 2010) As much as I love baseball, there are times when I take a step back and wonder, “What am I doing with this nonsense? Surely, there are better ways to spend my time and energies.” And at the risk of being […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
by Yoko Ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder (2003; Picador Translation 2009) I can’t even remember where I heard of this title but I’m glad I did. Ogawa tells a touching story about a Japanese housekeeper, her 10-year-old son, and her professional charge, a former mathematics professor with an unusual disability, which was the result of […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
by Dan Fost. MVP Books, 2010. A book such as Giants Past & Present caters to multiple readerships. On the one hand you have long-time fans of the team, both in the East and West Coast incarnations. You also have younger fans, who grew up on the San Francisco version. In addition, there are the […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
My annual Spring Baseball Roundup appears on the current edition of Bookreporter.com: 2010 Spring Baseball Roundup In a baseball era when much of the discussion has centered on who may have taken shortcuts to superstardom, it’s refreshing that 2010 sees several titles harkening back to a simpler time and heroes who won their glory through […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Knowing I would have a lot of down time during my recent Jamaica trip, I loaded up on the baseball books, no small feat since I was only taking a carry on and a Jack Bauer bag. Among the titles: the new Roger Maris bio by Calvin and Peary; Baseball America Prospect Handbook 2010; Fay […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The Life, The Legend, by James. S. Hirsch. Scribner, 2010. The long-anticipated (authorized) biography of the Say Hey Kid was worth the wait. Hirsch, a former journalist for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal certainly didn’t have an easy time in getting the gig. He had been after Mays for almost seven […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
By Bob Mitchell. Kensington, 2008. As a lover of the TV show Lost and sci-fi in general, I always welcome the chance to mix the genre with baseball (see, Baseball Fantastic, edited by W.P. Kinsella). So it was with a sense of joy when Bob Mitchell’s Once Upon a Fastball swerved from a regular work […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
A Hall of Fame Pitcher & A Hall of Fame Hitter Talk About How the Game is Played, by Bob Gibson and Reggie Jackson with Lonnie Wheeler (Doubleday, 2009) When I first heard about this book, I immediately wondered, who had the bigger ego? How was the process handled? Did Gibson tell Jackson to meet […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
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
* Bookshelf Review: The Underground Baseball Encyclopedia
May 6, 2010 · 1 comment
Baseball Stuff You Never Needed to Know and Can Certainly Live Without, by Robert Schnakenberg. Triumph, 2010. Schnakenberg takes his love for pop culture (anti-culture?) and puts a national pastime spin on it in this little faux-reference volume. The connection between PC and baseball has been handled in more serious veins by Jonathan Fraser Light […]
Tagged as: baseball humor, baseball reference, trivia
{ Comments on this entry are closed }