Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
As per this story in The New York Times. One recent discovery, from a cellar in Illinois, might be unlike any other, showing Ruth in his prime and shot from close range, sitting atop a pony while wearing a child’s cowboy hat and muttering into a home movie camera, as a boyish Lou Gehrig, who […]
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How great must it be for John Thorn these days. Not only is his new book, Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game, getting good reviews early on, but he was recently appointed Major League baseball’s official historian. Here are just a few of the items that have hit […]
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The Yankee Captain gets the GQ treatment as the April cover and profile by Seth Mnookin, author of Feeding the Monster: How Money, Smarts, and Nerve Took a Team to the Top, about the arch rival Red Sox.
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“Any rebroadcast, reproduction [emphasis added] or other use of this game without the express written consent of Major League Baseball is prohibited.” Or not: “Library of Congress Buys Audio Archive“: The library will announce the purchase of [emphasis added] the audio recordings on Wednesday. The archive belonged to John Miley, an 80-year-old retired businessman in […]
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Want to help out a good cause with the potential to score some baseball book swag? Writers for the Red Cross holds a weekly on-line auction. This week the prize is provided by Joseph Wallace, author of Diamond Ruby: A Novel and several other non-fiction coffee table titles about the national pastime. According to Wallace, […]
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Wally Yonamine was the first Asian-American to play baseball in Japan, died on Monday at the age 0f 85. As a Nisei — a first generation American of Japanese descent — Yonamine had many Jackie Robinson moments when he debuted for the Yomiuri Giants in 1951. His story was chronicled in Robert Fitts’ excellent biography, […]
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How depressing is it when guys you followed as a kid growing up in the sixties start to die off? It’s one thing — and no less unfortunate — for people like Duke Snider, but I remember Greg Goossen, from his years on the New York Mets. Goossen, who signed with his home town Los […]
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The legendary “Bum” died today at the age of 84. Here‘s the Richard Goldstein obituary from the NY Times. Guarantee there will be front page mention of this tomorrow. Snider collaborated on his autobiography, The Duke Of Flatbush, with Bill Gilbert in 1988. Other titles include: The Duke Snider Story, by Winehouse (1964) Duke Snider, […]
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Save the Date — Poet Ernest L. Thayer, whose signature piece, Casey at the Bat, has been recited for more than 100 years, will be recognized with a plaque affixed to the stoop of his former home in Lawrence, MA in a ceremony on March 19. From the story: Mark Schorr, executive director of the […]
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I exchanged a few e-mails with Fritz Peterson recently, wishing him birthday nachas. He said he was excited that the Matt Damon-Ben Affleck project about the family-switching he did with Yankee teammate Mike Kekich was being made into a feature film. But evidently not everyone is enthralled with that possibility. I can understand Kekich’s point […]
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The Hall of the Very Good blog posted this article about little known facts regarding the men who occupied the highest office in the land and the national pastime. Paul Dickson, baseball referencarian par excellence, published Baseball: The Presidents’ Game in 1993, with an update four years later. Dan Cohen published Play Ball, Mr. President: […]
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As much fun as this time of year can be, it can also be sad for those veteran players who were hoping to hang on for one more season and realize, for one reason or another, that they just can’t do it. Jim Edmonds, the four-time All-Star, six time Gold Glove winner has called it […]
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One of my favorite sections of the then-Street and Smith,/now-Sporting News annuals is the part devote to player milestone/targets. It remains great fun to see where the contemporary stars rank in relation to the legends of the game. I enjoy looking at a player and counting down, and guessing if he’ll make the goal during […]
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Three perfect words become four, according to this piece in The Wall Street Journal. Is “Report” really necessary? Isn’t it implied? But why stop there? Three words: Pitchers and catchers Four words: Pitchers and catchers report Five words: Pitchers and catchers report today Six words: Pitchers and catchers report here today (local papers only) Seven […]
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Because you can keep a TV on your bookshelf: Who Do You Think You Are? : Tim McGraw NEW TV-PG NBC, 8 p.m. EST Tim McGraw researches his father’s past and discovers an industrious ancestor. The country singer/actor was 11 years old when he discovered that popular relief pitcher Tug McGraw was his father.
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Hal Richman didn’t waste any time when I asked him if he could have envisioned celebrating the 50th anniversary of his iconic baseball game, Strat-O-Matic. “Absolutely not,” he said, after some initial laughter over the absurdity of the situation. Hundreds of the game’s fans from across the country will participate in tomorrow’s “2011 Strat-O Opening […]
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The oldest baseball player died Tuesday at the age of 101. Malinosky played briefly for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1937.
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Just when you thought it was safe to return to the library comes the news — rather the Tweet — that Jose Canseco, author of Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits, and How Baseball Got Big and Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars, and the Battle to Save Baseball will give it another go with […]
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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
