Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
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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This list includes more than 125 reviews. Some are the books are duplicated by different reviewers.
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The August edition includes: Reviews on Baseball Confidential: Secret History of the War Among Chandler, Durocher, MacPhail, and Rickey; The Lords of Baseball; and 1947: When All Hell Broke Loose in Baseball Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman A History of Cuban Baseball, 1864-2006 An annotated bibliography on Yankees books “What One Book” Survey (Note: Requires […]
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With the passing of Phil “The Scooter” Rizzuto today, I thought it appropriate to “reprint” a precious entry on his “poetry-inspired” book, O Holy Cow. —– A program on the Feb. 10, 2007 broadcast of NPR’s Only a Game had an interesting topic, Shakepeare as Sport. It reminded me of a review I did on […]
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This review appeared on the Sports Literature Association Web site in August, 2004. The Last Best League: One Summer, One Season, One Dream, by Jim Collins. Da Capo, 2004. 288pp. $24.00 (cloth), ISBN 0738209015. Reviewed by Ron Kaplan The ballplayers on the Chatham As of the Cape Cod League are on the cusp. All of […]
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Ralph Kiner, a fixture in the Mets broadcast booth since their debut in 1962, was honored on July 14 with a “night.” A mix of baseball celebrities were on hand, including former Mets players (Bud Harrelson, Ed Kranepool, Rusty Staub, Jerry Koosman, Ed Charles, and Tom Seaver, who did a fairly shaky job in his […]
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Birdie: Confessions of a Baseball Nomad by Birdie Tebbetts and James Morrison. (Triumph Books, 2002.) By his own description, George “Birdie” Tebbetts was a “Joe”–that is, he wasn’t the type of player who could hit 40 home runs or bat .300 or win any awards: “Joes are the guys who win you the pennant.” Tebbetts […]
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1941: The Greatest Year in Sports by Mike Vacarro (Doubleday, 2006) While he does cover other sports in his newest offering, Mike Vaccaro, New York Post sportswriter and author of Emperors and Idiots, one of the endless stream of titles about the Red Sox-Yankees 2004 season, spends most of his prose on a quartet of […]
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“Casey at the Bat” has served as fodder for generations. Ernest L. Thayer’s poem (subtitled “A Ballad of the Republic”) has appeared in several incarnations as a juvenile picture book, portrayed by the likes of Leroy Neiman and C.F. Payne, among others. In one of the most visually and socially dazzling versions, Joe Morse depicts […]
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My review of Tom Stanton’s new book appeared on Bookreporter.com. Kudos to Stanton for finding a heretofore un- (or under-) reported event in the backstory of baseball. And further credit for bucking the conventional wisdom that Cobb was just a nasty S.O.B. Stanton also discussed his book on NPR’s Only a Game.
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The SABR Baseball List and Record Book, edited by Lyle Spatz (Scribner) The ambitious Record Book contains almost 750 categories. The cover heralds the volume as “Baseball’s most fascinating and unusual statistics” with an asterisk that draws the eye to a tiny footnote claiming that the information is “not available online or in any other […]
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Some very interesting little books arrived today, full of nice surprises: Three pocket-sized “Wise Guides” to Wrigley Field, Yankee Stadium, and Fenway Park. Each slim volume concentrates on each franchise’s unique ballpark experience in a manner that’s sure to please the novice game-goer, as well as amuse the season ticket holder. The books (booklets?) contain […]
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A few times I year I do a “roundup” of reviews for Bookreporter.com. This year’s batch includes: Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinon’s Furst Season, by Eig The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America, by Posnanski The Cheater’s Guide to Baseball, by Zumsteg Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan’s Guide […]
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by Burton A. Boxerman and Benita W. Boxerman, 2007, McFarland Publishing, Jefferson, NC, 232 pages, $32.95. While there have been other books about Jewish baseball players, none packs as much of a scholarly punch as this new title. Every player considered Jewish as defined by the Jewish Major Leaguers baseball card set is accounted for, […]
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<p><em>The Best of Baseball Digest</em>, Edited by John Kuenster (Ivan R. Dee, 2006)</p> <p></p><i.baseball></i.baseball><p><em><a href=”https://www.centurysports.net/baseball/”>Baseball Digest</a></em> has been a staple since 1942. Each month, stories from around the country have found their way into the compact publication.<a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=425,height=594,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0’); return false” href=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/bbdigest.jpg”><img title=”Bbdigest” height=”209″ alt=”Bbdigest” src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/bbdigest.jpg” width=”150″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px […]
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<p><em>Why Time Begins on Opening Day</em> by Thomas Boswell (Doubleday, 1984)<a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=100,height=153,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0’); return false” href=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/boswell.jpg”><img title=”Boswell” height=”229″ alt=”Boswell” src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/boswell.jpg” width=”150″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px” /></a> </p> <p>This was the book that started it all for me (even though it was not the author’s first release). When I read Boswell’s […]
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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
