Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
MyrtleBeachOnline’s sports columnist Sean Horgan offered a list of 20 great sports books, including the following baseball titles, listed in his order: The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, (Bill James, 1986) This book changed the way many people looked at baseball, encompassing history, anecdotes and statistical analysis. The Great American Novel (Philip Roth, 1973) Roth […]
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Talk about sub-genres. How about a baseball mystery novel? This review comes from Mystery-Books.com. Upshot: Fans of baseball novels will undoubtedly be thrilled with Green Monster and overlook the flaws that make this mystery no better than average. Talk about damning with faint praise…
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From the MLB Scoop blog. Upshot: Read it.
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Kidliterate.com published this review of Alan Gratz’s latest. Gratz also wrote Samurai Shortstop, a young adult/historical fiction book on baseball at a Japanese school in the late 19th century. Visit Gratz’s Web site.
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At the risk of cutting off my nose to spite my face, I have to say that I never got the whole “critic” thing. I guess people want someone to give them advice on what to read/see/listen to and what to avoid. And that’s basically it. They can do without all the fancy language and […]
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Phil Mulshine reviews Bob Golon’s book in the Newark Star-Ledger. Upshot: The bulk of this book consists of a team-by-team account of the eight clubs that play in New Jersey. Golon visited them all and reports that he didn’t get “major-leagued” at any. He defines being “major-leagued” as “getting the distinct feeling of fan-unfriendliness that […]
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Glad to see I’m not the only one who doesn’t review every title as soon as it comes out. This one from the estimable Baseball Toaster.
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SchooLibraryJournal.com published this article commenting on several Negro League titles, including: Kadir Nelson’s We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball James Sturm and Rich Tommaso’s Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow Robert Burleigh’s Stealing Home: Jackie Robinson Against the Odds
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From the Bronx Banter column of the always entertaining Basbeall Toaster, this review of the late Bobby Murcer’s autobiography.
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From Wicked Locale Orleans, a Cape Cod-based outfit, this review of Nick Cafardo’s 100 Things Red Sox Fans Should Know & Do before They Die and Faithful To Fenway, by Michael Ian Borer. Upshots: There is little in Cafardo’s retelling of Red Sox history that the diehards don’t already know, but it is not Cafardo’s […]
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Someone does evidement, as per this review of Neil Leifer’s Ballet in the Dirt on this French photographic Web site.
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Reviewed on Blogcritics.com. Author Mark Kreidler was also interview on a recent edition of Only a Game.
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From the Twin Cities Daily Planet.
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Ugh. That “forever” word. Anyway, this review comes courtesy The Joy of Sox blog.
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This site offers dozens of reviews of baseball titles written by readers like ourselves (Scroll down to “sports”; there’s a link specifically for baseball titles). Typically, the publisher’s press release tops the individual page, followed by reader reviews and ratings. Think Amazon.com without all the ordering information and clutter. Like most criticism, the reviews can […]
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The Kansas City Star published this review of Tom Swift’s biography about the turn of the (20th) century Native American pitcher. The paper also applauds the long-time efforts of the publisher in the pursuite of excellence in the baseball genre: “An unsolicited editorial remark: This book is one of the latest baseball volumes to come […]
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From the Traverse City Record-Eagle, the first of a two-parter on historical books about the Tigers. The premise of this piece on The Perfect Season seems quite different. The author went through every Detroit season and pieced together the best wins in franchise history. The first chapter tells the story of the best opening-day win, […]
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The article includes titles that run the gamut from statistics to biography to stadium appreciation. For a list, actually, then reviews, but good suggestions.
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Form the Schenectady (NY) Daily Gazette, a piece on the poetry/story by Sarah Freligh.
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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
* Suggested Reading, preface: Sean Horgan
September 26, 2008
Posted the second list before the first, so here it is: Ball Four (Jim Bouton, 1970) | This book changed everything about how we cover and view sports and the people who play them. It also almost got me and my friend Prisby thrown out of sophomore English because we kept reading passages out loud […]
Tagged as: baseball books
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