Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
“Boston Marathon Blasts Kill 2, Police Say,” NY Times headline The explosions went off more than four hours after the start of the men’s race, which meant that there were still several thousand runners yet to finish the race. Can you imagine if there had been a similar or additional event at Fenway Park, where […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
There’s a line in the new biopic, 42, in which Pee Wee Reese tells his new teammate Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to break the (modern) color line, “Maybe tomorrow we’ll all wear 42. That way they won’t tell us apart.” That tomorrow is today. Today Major League Baseball holds its annual Jackie Robinson Day. […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
At least among the researchers and library set. According to Amazon.com, 501 Baseball Books is: #1 in Books > Education & Reference > Writing, Research & Publishing Guides > Publishing & Books > Bibliographies & Indexes > Literature
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The previous article from The New Republic had a link to another baseball story in the magazine: the possible flaws in MLB’s partnership with T-Mobile to supply teams with cell phones for communicate with the bullpen.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
So the entitled Yankee fans are turning their backs on the Bronx Bombers because of a few injuries? Welcome to the world of every other baseball fan. Richard Sandomir chronicled the last time the Yankees fell so low — 1965 — which “No current Yankees player was alive to witness.” He gives a nod to […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Not content with destroying their previous franchise — my beloved Montreal Expos — the current management of the Miami Marlins are intent on ruining — for the second time — another team as well as crushing the souls of whatever fan base they’ve managed to muster. Now they have the nerve to sue a […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
I wonder if that was an edict handed down by MLB. Submitted for your enjoyment: Cleveland Indians: A (Annotated!) Miami Marlins: B+ Arizona Diamondbacks: B Oakland A’s: B- Kansas City Royals: D
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Sorry, but no cards for George Washington, top, who played for the Chicago White Sox from 1935-36, or Ezra Lincoln, below, who split his one big league season in 1890 between the Cleveland Spiders and Syracuse Stars.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Value Over Replacement Grit offers a baseball-themed crossword puzzle. At the risk of appearing sexist, I must say this is the first time I’ve encountered a woman who collects baseball cards with such a passion as Cee Angi, who wrote this mournful “Requiem for the 00s: The Decline of Topps Baseball Cards,” in which she […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Because you can put this on your bookshelf, behind lock and key. because, really, would you play with it? The eBay item of the day: a hand-made baseball tabletop game with an opening bid of $1.2 million. But at least you get “free economy shipping.” Frankly someone who has that kind of money to spend […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Supposedly former sportswriter and baseball commissioner Ford Frick was the one to bestow on Stan Musial the honor, “baseball’s perfect knight.” But as we all know, nobody’s perfect. That’s why I wonder about the purpose of this piece by Luke Epplin in The Atlantic that seeks to drive home the point. In particular, Epplin (who […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
In 1991, I “auditioned” for a new softball team. I had been playing slow pitch/arc in town but had become a bit bored, so when some old friends from Brooklyn told me about their fast-pitch team in Freehold, I thought I’d give it a shot. In the first at bat of the first day of […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Sure enough, the papers are full of stories about the lack of new inductees by the BBWAA for this year’s Hall of Fame inductions. Perhaps The NY Times did it best: Knowing how “expensive” it is to waste “real estate,” I’d say that’s a pretty bold move. It’s either an editorial comment of some sort […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Not sure if this is surprising or not, but no one was elected into the Hall of Fame today. Don’t know how long this will stay live, but here’s the official word from the Baseball Writers Association of America website. You can bet dollars to donuts that there will be scores of columns, both in […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
With all due respect and this is a fascinating, if sad, story, but how else to explain this story about the murder of ex-Pittsburgh Pirate infielder Sammy Khalifa’s father and the psychic toll it took on the ballplayer over the years that starts on the first sports page then jumps to a full-page continuation? Rob […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Every Christmas you can count on a couple of celebrities to cast off this mortal coil. This time, sadly, it’s two of my favorite actors, Jack Klugman obit by Bruce Weber) and Charles Durning. One of Klugman’s signature roles was, of course, the sloppy sportswriter Oscar Madison in beloved TV series The Odd Couple, for […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
What a shame. The former Cincinnati Reds pitcher was just 55. Pastore, who pitched the final year of his eight-year career with the Minnesota Twins, died on Monday from injuries sustained last month in a motorcycle accident. Following his retirement from baseball at the age of 28, Pastore became a popular Christian radio personality.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
{ 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
Swung on and missed
January 15, 2013
As in I missed posting this earlier. So how’s Peter Rose looking now, given the latest Hall of Fame debacle? Perhaps in an attempt to bring him back into the spotlight, he and his family are the subject of a new reality TV series, Pete Rose, Hits & Mrs., which airs Sunday nights on The […]
Tagged as: Pete Rose, reality TV
{ Comments on this entry are closed }