Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
The Clermont Sun (Batavia, Ohio) ran this review of Bill Madden’s 1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever. Upshot: “[T]his is not a book for casual ball-watchers or followers of modern baseball. No, it’s for fans who love the history of the game. For that […]
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The excellent Joe Posnanski writes about Field of Dreams, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. As such, the 1989 film, which was nominated for three Oscars and won several “best foreign language film” from international organizations, will no doubt he the subject of similar pieces, some which will heap praise, others derision. The next […]
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Does a review carry more weight if it’s done by A Hall of Famer-award winning writer? In this case, Paul Hogan who received the Spink Award for 2013 for contributions to baseball writing published this one about Tim Hornbaker’s Turning the Black Sox White: The Misunderstood Legacy of Charles A. Comiskey on the MLB website. […]
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Looking over the overlooked in baseball books stuff. In honor of Mothers’ Day, this piece by David Seideman in Forbes urges you to “Forgive Your Mom For Throwing Out Your Baseball Cards.” Is it my imagination or are Mookie Wilson and Bill Buckner turning into Ralph Branca and Bobby Thomson? MLB.com described Mookie’s new memoir […]
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Submitted for your convenience, the run of this year’s 30-30 as per Tom Hoffarth’s Farther off the Wall blog: Day 1 – Mover and Shaker, by McCue Day 2 — Where Nobody Knows Your Name, by Feinstein Day 3 — Babe Ruth’s Called Shot, by Sherman Day 4 — A Nice Little Place on the […]
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I’m all for newspapers and that includes student newspapers. Here’s a review form the Royal Purple News, from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater about a “local” baseball novel, It Happened in Wisconsin, by Ken Moraff Hmm, haven’t even heard of this one — Just Out of Reach: The 1980s New York Yankees, by Greg Prato — […]
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Politics aside, I’ve often wondering why such smart people such as Doris Kearns Goodwin, Thomas Oliphant, and George Will (among others), have such an affinity for baseball. here, Will — author of A Nice Little Place on the North Side: Wrigley Field at One Hundred — tries to explain why the game is such a […]
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Looking over the overlooked in baseball book news: Tidewater Tides manager Ron Johnson gets a nice profile based on his inclusion in John Feinstein’s Where Nobody Knows Your Name, by John Feinstein. Speaking of which, the Roanoke Times posted this review of the book. Speaking of reviews, Philly.com posted this one on Jackie and Campy, […]
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The Passover holidays have played havoc with my schedule, so there’s a lot to catch up on. First off, can you remember those Bicentennial Minutes that CBS used to broadcast in the months leading up to the big celebration? Well, Dan Epstein, author of the new Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial […]
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Last month I received a copy of Chasing Dreams, the companion volume to the baseball exhibit at the National Museum of American Jewish History. Thumbing through it, I found this portrait of Bernard Malamud, author of The Natural, one of the highest regarded baseball novels of all time. A few days afterwards, the cover story […]
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Once again, Tom Hoffarth, media columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News, is doing his 30 baseball books in 30 days feature. First up: Mover and Shaker: Walter O’Malley, the Dodgers, and Baseball’s Westward Expansion by my old SABR pal, Andy McCue.
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It’s that time of year when publications — both print and on-line — put out their lists of hot new baseball titles, either from a staff writer or guest contributor. One of the reasons publishers get their lists out so far in advance is that the general media (i.e., not the sports sections) “celebrates” the […]
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They’re starting to come in hot and heavy. Witness: John Rosengren, author of the The Fight of Their Lives: How Juan Marichal and John Roseboro Turned Baseball’s Ugliest Brawl into a Story of Forgiveness and Redemption, was arecent guest on WBUR’s Only a Game. OAG‘s host, Bill Littlefield included it in a trio of books […]
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Andy Wolfenson over at the “Bloggin’ Baseball (from the bench)” blog (say that five times fast) posted this review of 501 recently. Grateful that it’s still in the air, so to speak.
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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
