Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
One of the legends of the sportswriting world passed away yesterday at the age of 93. Bisher began writing for the Atlanta Journal Constitution in 1950, retiring in 2009. he began his newspaper career in 1938 at the Lumberton Voice in North Carolina. I recall him from his work as a region writer covering the […]
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A sad day indeed. No longer will we be able to read, in “hard copy” form, entries on baseball, contributed by such scholars as Jerome Holtzman, Benjamin Rader, and Richard Peterson. Other topics under the general heading of “baseball” include entries on Mel Allen, the Ken Burns documentary, Japanese baseball, Mexican baseball, the negro Leagues, […]
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Many networks pull ratings stunts by pairing two of their popular shows together (NBC’s Law and Order with Homicide: Life on the Streets, for example). So I feel it’s kosher to offer this piece by author Allan Barra on The Atlantic‘s website on why Wilt the Stilt was the Big Bambino of his sport. It […]
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Henry D. Fetter, author of Taking on the Yankees: Winning and Losing in the Business of Baseball, published this piece on Atlantic.com asking, “Should the Mets’ Owners Worry About Jury Bias in Their Madoff Trial? Key paragraph: No “one percenter” relishes the idea of having their fate determined by the proverbial “jury of their peers” […]
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I’m going to take a leap of faith and assume most of you have read Michael Lewis’ neo-classic. But if you haven’t, or are looking for a real steal, there are a couple of outlets where you can buy it for your nook or Kindle for two bits (kids, ask your grandparents. Oh, all right, […]
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As a public service reminder, remember to set your clocks ahead one hour before turning in to night. The Mets, and to a lesser extent the Astros, will be falling back as they celebrate their 50th anniversary. David Brooks, the social commentator, published this piece in yesterday’s New York Times on the seemingly impossible tasks […]
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The famed illustrator had much more important issues than baseball to draw about. From the NY Times obituary by Douglas Martin: With sketch pads in hand, Mr. McMahon covered momentous events in the civil rights struggle, spacecraft launchings, national political conventions and the Vatican, turning out line drawings for major magazines and newspapers. Many were […]
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NPR’s The Leonard Lopate Show replayed a 2008 interview with the late Hall of Famer, following the release of his book, Still a Kid at Heart: My Life in Baseball and Beyond. Jonah Keri, author of The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First and currently […]
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To the Perth Heat, for winning their second straight Australian Baseball League title. Good show, mates. Nicholas Henning has written a couple of novels about baseball down under in Boomerang Baseball and The American Dream: From Perth to Sacramento. Congrats also goes to Rusty Staub for his election — along with Doug Melvin and Rheal […]
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Haven’t done one of these in awhile, but I have a bit of backlog I’d like to clear, so here goes. * We’ll have to agree to disagree. One card collector can’t stand the new 2012 Topps series. Another calls it the best one yet. What do you think? * LibraryJournal.com posted this piece reviewing […]
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Sorry, but that seems to be a big part of the memoir industry these days. It’s all “I was a victim of _____ abuse” or “I came from dysfunctional family” or some other situation that I would say a good portion of the non-celebrity population has to deal with. Only we don’t have the benefit […]
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The veteran legal thriller author tales a shot at the national pastime in Calico Joe, due out on April 10 from Doubleday. from Doubleday’s website: Whatever happened to Calico Joe? It began quietly enough with a pulled hamstring. The first baseman for the Cubs AAA affiliate in Wichita went down as he rounded third […]
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If you’re in the NY area, or can get WNYC (AM 820 in the NY area, 93.9 on the FM dial) somehow, Jonathan Schwartz is having his annual baseball special in which he features songs and events abut the national pastime. Unfortunately, it’s a repeat of an older show (or so I believe) so you […]
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Reportedly, the four-time All-Star and MVP fell off the wagon earlier this week, hoisting a drink (or more?) at a pub in Dallas. Fellow Texas Ranger Ian Kinsler supposedly came to the establishment to convince his teammate to leave. Of course, I feel sorry for Hamilton, if all this is true; I’m a benefit-of-the-doubt kind […]
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The nominations for the Academy Awards were announced this morning and Moneyball came away with a “cycle” of sorts. The unlikely cinematic version of Michael Lewis’ best-seller is up for Best Picture, Best Actor (Brad Pitt), Best Supporting Actor (Jonah Hill), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin, and Stan Chervin). UPDATE: Moneyball also […]
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Kostya Kennedy, author of 56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports, has been selected as winner of the are pleased to announce that the winner of the 2012 CASEY Award, the annual prize of Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine. According to a press release issued by Spitball editor Mike Shannon, 56 received two […]
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I found the headline of this article — “Will Expanded Replay Lead to More Women Umpires?” — most intriguing. Aside from the deeper question about the opportunities (or lack thereof) for “women in blue,” as discussed in this article on the Baseball Reflections blog, I have yet to hear why the adoption of technology should […]
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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
I don’t know about you…
February 27, 2012
But I’m getting tired of all the pundits who are saying that just because Ryan Braun’s appeal has been upheld, that doesn’t make him “innocent.” Perhaps not, but why are they so abso-freaking-lutely sure that he’s “guilty” (and how do they define that word)? Just because the panel of three arbiters cited concerns with the […]
Tagged as: Performance Enhancing Drugs, Ryan Braun
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