Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
♦ The New York Times posted their annual baseball roundup, albeit with fewer titles than usual. But remember, it’s quality, not quantity. Jim Bouton offers his review of two Yankees books: Marty Appel’s Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees from Before the Babe to After the Boss and Damn Yankees: Twenty-Four Major League Writers on […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
♦ The Austin American Statesman posted this review of Lefty: An American Odyssey, the biography of an underrated hurler for the New York Yankees in the 1930s-earl 1940s. Upshot: “…”Lefty” charms not for the way it tells the story of a life but for the way it captures the way Gomez saw and experienced the […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
♦ James Bailey takes a look at Marietta College Baseball: The Story of the ‘Etta Express in this review. ♦ I did an interview with Paul Staudohar last week, the results of which will be posted as a podcast in the near future, While Googling around for some info on him (among other things, he’s […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Baseball Reflections posted this review of Ozzie’s School of Management: Lessons from the Dugout, the Clubhouse, and the Doghouse.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Louisiana Voice (Tagline: “Politics at its worst!”) posted this review of Dirty Rice: A Season in the Evangeline League, by Gerald Duff. Upshot: “If you are a fan of the grand old game and you are into baseball lore, this book is for you” (isn’t that kind of the same thing?). Slim pickings today, folks.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
MLB Reports reported on David Stinson’s Deadball: A Metaphysical Baseball Novel. Upshot: “…David Stinson accomplished his mission. I read. I learned. I experienced. I thought. I questioned the baseball past and starting looking to my baseball future. I am. Therefore baseball is the answer. The Metaphysics of Baseball. Welcome to Deadball.” The Jackson (Miss.) Clarion […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
♦ Bailey’s Baseball Book Reviews posted this one on Grisham’s Calico Joe. Upshot: “We’ve now had baseball tales from two of the literary world’s heavyweights in the past three years. Both have failed to live up to expectations.” [The other one is Stephen King’s novella, Blockade Billy.] ♦ Bailey also offers this on Just a […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
TAOF is now in paperback, so I guess it’s time for another round of fawning articles. (I found it interesting when I saw it at my local Barnes and Noble: there was a “sticker” on the cover that declared: A New York Times Book review BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR It has obviously been designed […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Not much today, boys and girls. ♦ BosoxInjection, a Red Sox-centric blog, posted this review of Extra Innings, Bruce Spitzer’s novel about the “reanimation” of Ted Williams in the year 2092. ♦ The Washington Times offers this review of Calico Joe. Upshot: “With Father’s Day approaching, “Calico Joe” is a book guaranteed to make Pop […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
♦ I don’t usually look at e-books if they haven’t been published on paper as well, but David H. Martinez (The Book of Baseball Literacy: 3rd Edition: Nearly 700 People, Places, Events, Teams, Stats, and Stories – Everything You Need to Know in One Massive Book) has enough of a track record for me to […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
♦ Recently “discovered” At Home Plate, a nice little baseball site that posts the occasional review. Recent titles include Long Taters: A Baseball Biography of George “Boomer” Scott The Greatest Minor League: A History of the Pacific Coast league, 1903-1957 Hit By Pitch: Ray Chapman, Carl Mays, and the Fatal Fastball Wherever I Wind Up: […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
♦ Bill Jordan posted this review of Paul Dickson’s Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest Maverick, on Baseball Reflections. Upshot: “Anyone who considers themselves to be a fan of baseball history should pick this work up. Whether you were familiar with Veeck or not before reading the book, you stand to learn a lot about this interesting […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
These come from the New Books Network which features news on several different genres, including sports. These two, both by Bruce Berglund, feature interviews with Robert Fitts, author of Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, and Assassination during the 1934 Tour of Japan; Lee Congdon, author of Baseball and Memory: Winning, Losing, and Remembrances of Things […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
♦ The Knoxville News published this review of native son R.A. Dickley’s Wherever I Wind Up. Upshot: “t is rare to find a baseball book by an insider that dishes no dirt. It is even rarer to find a professional athlete willing to acknowledge his own mistakes. In “Wherever I Wind Up,” R.A. Dickey reveals […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
♦ Tom Hoffarth’s latest: Summer of ’68: The Season that Changed Baseball — And America — Forever, by Tim Wendel. Upshot: “Halberstam-esque.” High praise, indeed. ♦ WBEZ, the NPR presence in Chicago, posted this mini-review of 100 Things Cubs Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. ♦ Similarly, Bronx Baseball Daily posted this review […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
♦ Tom Hoffarth’s latest 30/30 entry: Ruling Over Monarchs, Giants & Stars: True Tales of Breaking Barriers, Umpiring Baseball Legends and Wild Adventures in the Negro Leagues. ♦ Only a Game host Bill Littlefield offered his thought’s on John Grisham’s Calico Joe (scroll down about half way). Upshot: “some of the baseball elements of Calico […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
♦ Tom Hoffarth’s latest two entries on his 30/30 feature: The Team That Forever Changed Baseball and America: The 1947 Brooklyn Dodgers, by The Society of American Baseball Research, edited by Lyle Spatz, Maurice Bouchard and Leonard Levin, and Conspiracy of Silence: Sportswriters and the Long Campaign to Desegregate Baseball, by Chris Lamb. Upshots: Dodgers […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
♦ The Washington Times posted this review of Paul Dickson’s new Bill Veeck bio. ♦ Baseball reflections posted this on R.A. Dickey’s Wherever I Wind Up. ♦ Tom Hoffarth’s livre-du-jour is Damn Yankees: Twenty-Four Major League Writers on the World’s Most Loved (and Hated) Team.
{ 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
