Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
One of my favorite character actors (Silverado, being my go-to villain role of his), Brian Dennehy has died at the age of 81. Baseball connections: Dennehy played the put-upon manager, John Schiffner, in the so-so Summer Catch (2001). He was also the voice of Babe Ruth in the animated kids’ movie, Everyone’s Hero (2006). And “Pop” […]
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Trying something a bit new in this age of coronavirus. Thanks — if that’s the appropriate word — to the current situation, we have a lot of “necessity is the mother of invention” going on. That’s how the Pandemic Baseball Book Club was born. The program is the brainchild of Jason Turbow, author of They […]
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A photo from 1918, during the Spanish Flu pandemic. More on baseball and the corona virus: Baseball has survived pandemics before, and for desperate fans, that counts (Washington Post) How Babe Ruth and baseball confronted another major pandemic (Pinstripe Alley) Required reading: September 1918: War, Plague, and the World Series, by Skip Desjardin
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Antonelli, one of the first “bonus babies,” died Feb. 28 at the age of 89. Here’s the obit of the former NY and San Francisco ace via Richard Goldstein in The New York Times. The pitcher published Johnny Antonelli: A Baseball Memoir with Scott Pitoniak in 2012.
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The author of The Boys of Summer and almost 20 other books died yesterday at the age of 92. Here’s his obituary from The New York Times by Bruce Weber. You know he will be the topic of numerous tributes from sport and literary outlets in the days to come. Here are just a couple: […]
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Fight to the Finish: How the Washington Nationals Rallied to Become 2019 World Series Champions, by the Washington Post Consider these the instant replays of the newspaper business: the local team wins the Fall Classic and within days the major daily slaps together archival stories and photos and, bingo, instant memories. It’s kind of hard […]
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There are some people for whom you know how the first line of their obituary will read. Don Larsen is one those. The only man to throw a perfect game in a World Series died yesterday at the age of 90. (Four cents!) Richard Goldstein in The New York Times: Don Larsen, an otherwise ordinary […]
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Note: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish writing one). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes. In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast one […]
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After all, there have been recent revivals for musicals like West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, and Oklahoma… That’s the first thing I thought of when I came across this interesting piece by Thomas Boswell in yesterday’s Washington Post. After all, there has to bee some explanation as to how the Nationals came back […]
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Note: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish writing one). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes. In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast one […]
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Ron Fairly — who died yesterday at the age of 81 — was first baseman/outfielder who enjoyed a 20-year career with six teams in the big leagues, including six campaigns with my beloved Montreal Expos. When he hung ’em up as a player, he went on to a long second act as a broadcaster, spending […]
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Was driving when I heard some interviews ahead of Game Seven of the World Series. Whoever was speaking started to going into the usual things we hear in this situation. These aren’t the actual remarks, but the sentiment is definitely there. “There’s no tomorrow” “It’s do or die.” “We have to leave it all on […]
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Note: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish writing one). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes. In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast one […]
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Congratulations to the Washington Nationals, winners of the National League pennant and World Series participants for the first time in franchise history. Remember about 15 years ago when baseball was considering contracting a few teams. The Nats’ antecedents, the Montreal Expos, were in line for that fate. In fact, I traveled to my ancestral manse […]
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On this somber day, baseball remembers with a number of articles and videos. Here is a sampling. All the items are from this year unless otherwise noted. The night baseball returned after 9/11: ‘These people needed this’ (New York Post) MLB announces plans to honor victims and families of 9/11 attacks on 18th anniversary (MLB.com) […]
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Headnote: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not longer be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them. But it’ll be close enough for government work. In addition, sometimes the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast one by including a book in a category to which it […]
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The news that Tom Seaver is suffering with dementia reminded me of the handful of books about someone who bears the nickname “The Franchise.” There’s Steve Travers’ 2011 publication The Last Icon: Tom Seaver and His Times; Tom Seaver: An Intimate Portrait, by John Devaney (1974); and Seaver, by Gene Schoor (1986), but that’s pretty […]
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The NY Times‘ Richard Goldstein wrote the full obituary for Don Newcombe for today’s print edition. Depending on how you define who was a member of the “Boys of Summer,” a term used by Roger Kahn in his excellent 1972 book, there are still a handful left from that 1956 team for which Newcombe won […]
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We lost another one of the Boys of Summer with the passing today of Don Newcombe, 92. Here’s a brief AP obit which was posted on The New York Times‘ website a few minutes ago. And one from ESPN. I’m sure the media will offer their own tributes later today or tomorrow.
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is available on Amazon.com,
In my most recent "day job," I was the sports and features editor for a weekly New Jersey newspaper, where I hosted another blog. Busy, busy, busy.
I did a profile piece on the award-winning cartoonist Arnold Roth and he was nice enough to "immortalize" me.
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
