Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
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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Trying to clear out my mailbox o’ links by the end of the year. USA Today had high praise for The Kid, allowing that “chances are, no “Teddy Ballgame” biography will ever match up with Ben Bradlee Jr.’s new and exhaustive book about baseball’s greatest hitter.” (Here’s a 10-year-old’s take on the book. He must […]
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A collection of items about Ben Bradlee Jr.’s new bio of Ted Williams. With all due modesty, kicking this off with my own review of the book, which appears on Bookreporter.com. Here’s another one from USA Today. Slate’s review, by David Bry And while I’m at it, no harm in reposting the two NY Times […]
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ESPN’s Jim Caple posted this list of best baseball books in 2013. I keep hoping that 501 will make somebody‘s “best of” list, but so far it hasn’t happened. I’ve got no kick against any of Caple’s choices (well, perhaps One Summer: America, 1927, which, as he admits, is not a baseball book, although it […]
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I’m reading The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams for an upcoming review on Bookreporter.com. When I received the galleys, my first thought was similar to Rob Neyer’s, who noted in this post, “Hey, there’s another book about Ted Williams.” (Excerpt here. By the way, although I understand the title, it’s too similar to […]
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Haven’t done one of these in awhile. * The Washington Times posted this one on Willard Mullin’s Golden Age of Baseball: Drawings 1934-1972, edited by Hal Bock and Michael Powers. * WTOP in Washington DC ran this story and audio interview on Fred Frommer’s You Gotta Have Heart: A History of Washington Baseball from 1859 […]
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I think one of the things new authors have to learn is patience, very difficult when you want everyone to like your book…. and you want them to like it early on. I must admit, I was disappointed when 501 Baseball Books didn’t get the accolades I had fantasized about. No pickup in Sports Illustrated, or […]
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Daniel Shoptaw, who hosts Cardinals70, a blog dedicated to the St. Louis franchise, was kind enough to have me as a guest on his recent podcast, which you can hear here. And if that wasn’t enough, he also took the time to review the book.
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* Lindsey Berra, Yogi’s granddaughter, posted this piece on Allen Barra‘s Mays/Mantle bio on MLB.com. * Speaking of Yogi, this hyper-local site in the Seattle area wants to recommend his book (co-authored with Dave Kaplan), When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It. * The Thousand Oaks Library (Calif.) will feature Chad […]
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* I love a good deconstruction story. Here, author Dayn Perry joyously breaks down a number of baseball cards he recently purchased. * The Columbus, Indiana, Republic posted this glowing review of Doug WIlson’s The Bird: The Life and Legacy of Mark Fidrych. * The Santa Monica Mirror published a profile of local writer Alan […]
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The New York Times ran this article in the front section about trying to find a way to make maple bats more shatter-resistant. I don’t know what David Wright uses, but in the Wednesday night game, his bat broke against his head on a swing. Yikes. He didn’t even get out of the batter’s box […]
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Back from vacation, lots to catch up on. Baseball Reflection’s posted this review of Tom Dunkel’s Color Blind: The Forgotten Team That Broke Baseball’s Color Line. And the rich get richer: Sports Illusrated‘s Extra Mustard blog posted this piece about “Five Baseball Books You Owe It to Yourself to Read This Summer” (plus a couple of […]
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Well, perhaps not crazy. Let’s just say “annoyed?” I was reading this piece about “Why I’m Giving Up the NYTimes Book Review Habit,” by Matthew Gasda on the IndieReader website when I came across this passage: This means that, for instance, when a completely unoriginal, flat book gets pushed by its publisher as the next […]
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Burton Boxerman, co-author with his wife, Bonita, of the two-volume Jews and Baseball series published by McFarland a few years back, published this review of Larry Ruttman’s American Jews and America’s Game: Voices of a Growing Legacy in Baseball in Baseball in a recent edition of the St. Louis Jewish Light. As an ye shall […]
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All I know about Yankton, South Dakota, was that it was an element in one of my all-time favorite TV shows, Deadwood. Al Swearengen: Bloodletting on my premises that I ain’t approved I take as a f***ing affront. It puts me off my feed. Hearst:How do we know when you are off your feed? Al […]
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Nuckolball posted a review of Robert Creamer’s classic bio, Babe: The Legend Comes to Life. These are kind of like mini-reviews, so I’m including Baseball Nation’s piece on “Your favorite baseball books,” which includes, among others, Philip Roth’s The Great American Novel, The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball […]
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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
