Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
This TV news piece from FOX asks the scientific question: How does an outfielder catch a fly ball? The three main theories: 1. Trajectory prediction. The fielder perceives the initial conditions of the ball’s motion and compute its trajectory to predict where it will land. 2. Linear acceleration cancellation. The fielder runs so as to […]
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Or perhaps “Youk Ought to Be in Pictures,” (with apologies to Dana Suesse and Edward Heyman). Anyway, this item comes from Boston.com: Youk on screen He plays first base, he plays third base, and he also acts. All-purpose All-Star Kevin Youkilis is on his way to New York to shoot a scene for the indie […]
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Was anyone else bothered by this story on Johnny Damon in today’s New York Times? Damon, one of the heroes of the 2009 World Series, is currently unemployed. A free agent, the Yankees have displayed little interest in resigning him and at the moment, there are no other takers as teams have filled their high-profile […]
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From Len Berman’s That’s Sports site: Having worked in the news business, I’ve seen how it works. A big story breaks. It gets covered, and then the media moves on. Haiti doesn’t and shouldn’t work that way. Word comes that at least 30 members of Haiti’s soccer federation, players, refs, coaches and other officials, perished […]
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Congratulations to Larry Tye. His biography on Satchel Paige won a spot on The New York Times list of the year’s “notable books.” It’s the only baseball title on this exclusive roster, though not the only sports book. Tye’s critically-acclaimed offering is joined by Andre Agassi’s Open.
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Surprise, surprise: The Yankees. NOT. Although Tom Verducci did write the story about the Yankees’ latest championship, as well as this sidebar on the upcoming hot stove league. And in a case of raining on the Yankees’ parade, this week’s “Sign of the Apocalypse”: New York City office workers who ran out of confetti during […]
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As chosen by the members of the The Internet Baseball Writers Association of America (of which I am one). IBWAA ANNOUNCES 2009 CY YOUNG AND MVP AWARDS Los Angeles – The Internet Baseball Writers Association (IBWAA) announces its third set of postseason votes, naming the 2009 Cy Young (CY) and Most Valuable Player (MVP) award […]
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Dropped by the local Barnes and Noble at lunch today. Almost shocked to see only one “quicky” publication about the Yankees’ latest championship. The New York Post published The Best, a paperback volume. I never liked this type of publication. It seems like a money grab since the stuff for the most part is just […]
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Umpires have beengetting a lot of bad press lately, and deservedly so. Sports pundits are calling for wider use of instant replay in an effort to make the right calls, primarily on fair and foul balls and other on-base issues. One area they pretty much agree should not be touched is balls and strikes. Sure, […]
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The Newark Star-Ledger published a small supplement in preview of the Yankees-Angels ALCS which may or may not begin tonight. Headline: “Angels and Demons.” Ha ha. Don’t you just know that if a erayin Yankees’ outfielder does anything heroic, this will change to “Angels and Damon”? Can’t wait to see how the folks at Fox […]
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Are the only professions in which you can be so wring and still hold onto your job. Case in point.
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How the mighty — and not so mighty — have fallen: According to this story on the Sports Collector’s Daily website Dykstra’s 1986 World Series Ring Brings $56,762 I wonder if Baseball Americana had time to include it.
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Jewish for “Happy Holiday,” As Jews around the world gather tonight to mark the holiest day on the calendar, George Vecsey offered this column in today’s Sunday Times. Instead of putting the game at 8 p.m. — prime time, as the networks call it — ESPN and Major League Baseball are accommodating thousands of fans […]
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You know the season is over for your team when the newspapers publish a feature article…and conclude with a brief graph of two about the game. Like today. The New York Times printed this piece on Daniel Murphy approaching a club record for doubles (stop the presses!) and winding up with a “and, oh, by […]
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Unless, of course, your toddler tosses it back. From Big League Stew, a Yahoo sports blog: Since being featured on the front page of Yahoo! on Wednesday afternoon, the Big League Stew post containing the highlight has been one of the most clicked in this blog’s history and I don’t think it’s hard to figure […]
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A few germane baseball items over the week that I overlooked: In today’s edition, John Klima, author of the recently relased Willie’s Boys: The 1948 Birmingham Black Barons, the Last Negro League World Series, and the Making of a Baseball Legend (Wiley), published this item on how the Yankees blew their chance to sign Willie […]
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These are the only professions where you can be wrong a good portion of the time and still keep your job. Phil Taylor writes about this phenomenon in the Sept. 7 issue of Sports Illustrated. Even though he’s writing about football, it’s still germane. How many baseball genius picked the Mets to at least get […]
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Because you can keep the souvenir cups on your bookshelf. And at some of these prices, you better. Today’s Wall Street Journal ran this little item about the cost of beer at the ballpark as a factor of the team’s success. I see that several of the venues mention sell 20-21 oz. cups, which is […]
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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
* The only time Mark McGwire will be connected with National Public Radio
January 20, 2010
Our favorite game show host, Peter Sagal, included the recent shocking news about Mark McGwire on the latest episode of Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. In the “Who’s Carl This Time” feature, sidekick Carl Kassel offered the quote: “I used very very low dosages. There was no way I wanted to look like Lou Ferrigno […]
Tagged as: Mark McGwire, NPR, Peter Sagal
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