Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
I know we’ve only just begun, but you know me: I have no filter. The first day of MLB Network was pretty much a disappointment, as far as I’m concerned. The opening hour-long show, featuring four talking heads (including Harold Reynolds, Al Leiter, and Barry Larkin) alternated with a replay of Don Larsen’s World Series […]
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One of the things I like about this time of year is that the media comes out with its lest: the top ten, the best, the worst, etc. Jayson Stark of ESPN.com provided this list of the wildy and wacky world of baseball in 2008, including: A batter hitting a homer but not scoring the […]
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MLB Network will be hungry for content until the season opens. One wonders why they didn’t wait until at least Spring Training — if not opening day — to launch. I guess they wanted to start building their audience early. I watched a little but last night, mostly previews of what is to come. Among […]
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I have a copyright infringement issue. In describing the final weekend of the NFL regular season, the Dec. 29 digital issue Sporting News Today caries the headline “Crazy ’08.” Problem is, that title was already taken, by Cait Murphy in her excellent book about the Chicago Cubs. No doubt this was meant as an homage […]
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According to a story on today’s AdAge.com: In these challenging economic times — during which every story and press release commences with an “in these challenging economic times …” salvo — media entities are as likely to roll out a big-dollar, big-ambition offering as they are to quadruple their head count. And then there’s Major […]
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On the heels of the Teixiera announcement, this one regarding 25-cent bleacher seats for Yankee Stadium openers How much do you want to bet that the seats will a) be sold out in 15 minutes (look at those folks who have been waiting since last Friday for the 1,000 or so available pairs of new […]
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The Yankees just signed Teixiera. Enough is enough. Getting on my soapbox again, I think that just as international teams are only allowed to have a certain amount of foreign-born players, so should the Majors only be allowed a certain amount of free agents; everyone else has to be “home grown.”
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From the Advertising Age website, this item about new features from ESPN.com that will no doubt extend the time sports fans stay on the site to 26 hours a day. Beginning in summer 2009, the Walt Disney Co. sports-entertainment network will offer three new iTV products, tentatively titled ESPN My Vote, ESPN In Game Extra […]
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Bill “The Spaceman” Lee weighed made a guest appearance on NPR’s Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me yesterday, regarding the recent “shoe attack” by Muntadar al-Zeidi, a correspondent for Al-Baghdadiya television. Sagal: A lot of people were talking about the political ramifications of this [and] what it means for Preient Bush’s legacy, but that’s not what […]
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Stevens was not a baseball player, manager, coach, front office exec, peanut vendor, or team mascot. Rather, Stevens, who passed away on Dec. 8 at the age of 60, was lawyer. His claim to fame? According to his obituary in The New York Times, his slyly humorous law-review note on the relationship between baseball’s infield […]
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According to this item from the daily Publishers Weekly e-mail. Why is this significant? Both companies have put out several baseball titles over the last few years. Sourcebooks titles include: Do You Know the New York Yankees?: Test your expertise with these fastball questions (and a few curves) about your favorite team’s hurlers, sluggers, stats […]
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Technically, this doesn’t belong here (although you can keep a laptop on a bookshelf), but it’s an important resource so, from The New York Times, this announcement about the reorganization of ESPN.com. The problem with several major news outlets, including the Times and Sports Illustrated, is that the designers try to cram too much info […]
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Sal Yvars, the catcher for the New York Giants who spilled the beans about sign stealing during the famous playoff game against the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1951, died Dec. 10 at the age of 84. Richard Goldstein does his usual excellent job in the NY Times‘ obituary. Yvars, the Giants’ back-up receiver from 1957-53 (with […]
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You have to either be a small child or living with your head in the sand not to know what’s going on in the economy these days. Jobs lost, stocks plunging, parents wondering how they’ll send their kids to college or pay the mortgage. Those who think sports will provide a diversion might be in […]
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Congratulations to Joe Gordon, the only player elected by the Veteran’s Committee for induction into the Hall of Fame. Any volunteers?
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It’s quite appropriate that baseball’s winter meetings are held around the holidays. If your team’s front office guys are good, you can get a swell present of a 40-home run slugger or Cy Young-caliber pitcher. Or you can get a lump of coal. It’s way too early to report on anything major, so in the […]
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Greg Maddux, perhaps this generation’s greatest pitcher, announced that he will officially retire at the upcoming winter meetings. We’ve heard an awful lot about Roger Clemens, recently for all the wrong reasons. I’m willing to bet that Maddux is no choir boy, but he went about his work without the bluster and bravado of a […]
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Rather than giving Jerry Manuel another shot at the helm of the disappointing Mets, whose collapse over the last two season borders on the epic, the front office announced there will be a new sheriff in town as the Mets move into their new home. The new manager, identified only as “Wally,” appears with new […]
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The Hall of Fame veterans Committee will announce any decision on Monday, Dec. 8. Players who are under consideration include: SINCE 1943 • Dick Allen • Gil Hodges • Jim Kaat • Tony Oliva • Al Oliver • Vada Pinson • Ron Santo • Luis Tiant • Joe Torre • Maury Wills PRE-1943 • Bill […]
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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
* Remember Barry Bonds?
January 3, 2009
I’m including this one because the contributor of this essay is a published author (even if his main subject isn’t baseball). The subject of ethics has always intrigued me, so here’s one from John Marshall on “The baseball ethicist: Why nobody signed Barry Bonds.” Marshall is a professional ethicist, writer, lawyer and lifetime baseball enthusiast. […]
Tagged as: Barry Bonds, ethics in sports
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