Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
This piece originally ran in NINE. I thought, with all the buzz about the Cubs wining the 2008 pennant, and perhaps more, it was time to post it. Bear in mind that some new books on the team have been published since, including Glenn Stout’s The Cubs. The Million-to-One Team: Why the Chicago Cubs Haven’t […]
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Page 2’s Preseason MLB Power Rankings – Three little words — pitchers and catchers — indicate that the pre-season predictions are on the way for Major League Baseball. ESPN provides their first in a long line of “Power Rankings,” but they seem to be shaking off the winter funk, too. To wit: The Kansas City […]
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When it was first published, Ballet in the Dirt: The Golden Age of Baseball, a collection of Neil Leifer’s photographs which had a limited run of 1,000 copies, went for $400; towards the end, it was selling for $700. The 65-year-old Leifer, who has spent a good portion of his shooting for Sports Illustrate, is […]
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One of my first regular gigs was writing an annual baseball book roundup for BookPage, a monthly publication available at libraries and bookstores. These, along with single reviews, appeared from 1998-2004 (still can’t quite figure out what happened to that). Anyway, thanks to my new toy from Issuu.com, I was able to make a nice […]
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Keeping to the Hank Aaron theme: For more than 20 years, Hank Aaron quietly went about his work, doing all the things that Mantle and Mays did, but with less media attention. That is, until he came within striking distance of the most prestigious record in baseball: Babe Ruth’s 714 lifetime home runs. The two […]
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Extra Innings: The Joy and the Pains of Over-30 Baseball by Patrick Smith McFarland, 2007 As an, ahem, over-30 athlete myself, I could emphasize with Smith’s funny and thoughtful memoir of those of us still in love with playing a kid’s game; knowing better, but afraid to give it up, afraid to capitulate to he […]
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Skyhorse Publishing, 2007 Rick Wolff hosts a straightforward radio show about youth sports on WFAN in the New York market. Many is the time I almost reached for the phone to put in my two cents on the topic of the day or ask advice concerning my own child’s situation. So it was with great […]
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Edited by Michael G. Long. Times Books, 2007. By now, everyone — baseball fan or not — knows what a remarkable man Jackie Robinson was. In addition to his superior ability on the diamond and the responsibilities inherent in being the first African-American to break baseball’s notorious color line, he continued his work for civil […]
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By Mike Shannon. The University of Alabama Press, 2007 The superstar player has always been considered an artist at his craft. Now it’s time for “real” artists to return the favor. And no one makes a more appropriate subject for such treatment than Willie Mays. This title is categorized as “Visual Arts/Sports History,” a very […]
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Edited by John Thorn, Collins, 2007. Don’t let the slim size of this elegant book fool you. Inspired by an exhibit sponsored by the Museum of the City of New York, with essays from some heavy hitters, The Glory Days recaptures a simpler time for baseball and the country. Ballplayers who lived in our neighborhoods, […]
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My annual fall feature from Bookreporter.com.
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A Chicago Tavern:A Goat, a Curse, and the American Dream by Rick Kogan Well, the Cubs failed — again — to make it to the World Series. Naturally it was the billy goat’s fault. Rick Kogan tells the whole sorry, and sometimes, confusing story in A Chicago Tavern. But what it really comes down to […]
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NINE is a scholarly journal published twice a year by the University of Nebraska Press that “studies all historical aspects of baseball, centering on the societal and cultural implications of the game wherever in the world it is played. [The] journal features articles, essays, book reviews, biographies, oral history, and short fiction pieces.” Included in […]
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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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By Jayson Stark Triumph Books “Let the debate begin,” challenges the cover of the book. Stark, senior baseball writer for ESPN, adds his opinions in the latest volume in the genre of books whose sole purpose seems to invite an argument. Going position by position, Stark picks his “mosts” along with four “runner-ups.” It’s not […]
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by Frank Deford Sourcebooks, 2007 I don’t like reviews of fiction too much. Not reading them, not writing them. I find it too subjective. And when it comes to writing, I find it difficult to not divulge too much of the story. The titular “entitled” is a superstar outfielder for the Cleveland Indians. His “entitlement,” […]
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The Pain, Politics, and Promise of Sports, by Dave Zirin (Haymarket Books, 2007) Dave Zirin is an angry young man. But he has his rights and speaks on behalf of the multitude of fans whose attatchment to their games goes beyond the box scores. His Web site, EdgeofSports.com, is a double entendre: the topics for […]
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By Thomas K. Perry Pocal Press, 2007. From his humble Southern roots up to and including his banishment from organized baseball, Joseph Jefferson Jackson was considered one of the brightest stars in the sports firmament. Even the mighty Babe Ruth claimed to have modeled his style after the lithe lefty. The story of Shoeless Joe […]
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August 18 marked the 40th anniversary of the near-fatal beaning of Boston Red Sox star Tony Congiliaro. Author David Cataneo portrays Tony C. as a hometown product. Handsome, talented, and tremendously popular the slugger amassed 100 home runs at a very young age and was touted by some as the next big thing. But 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
Is it still funny, Joe?
December 12, 2007
Whatever happened to Joe Garagiola? or a time back in the late 1970s-early 80s he seemed to be all over the place: baseball color man, game show host, the Today Show. Where’s he been for the last 15-20 years? Working on a new book, it seems, a follow up to his successful Baseball is a […]
Tagged as: Baseball is a Funny Game, Joe Garagiola, Just Play Ball
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