Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
The man who held the NL consecutive hitting streak until Pete Rose broke it in 1978, Holmes struck out 122 times in 4,992 at-bats during his 11-year career, spent mostly with the Boston Braves. Look at that number again. Some players strike out that much in a season. Holmes spent 30 years working in the […]
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The New York Dailly News reports that Jose Canseco and his lawyer,, Robert Saunooke, have “parted ways.” “What’s percolating is I don’t represent him anymore. I terminated my relationship with him,” said Saunooke. “Just moving on. It’s a number of things. Irreconcilable differences, disagreement on some issues. I just don’t need the hassle anymore.”
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Okay, it’s been at least five minutes since we’ve heard anything about Jose Hemingway. For those of you who need a fix, here are a few crumbs: The Week is an interesting publication, kind of like a condense Reader’s Digest offering snippets from other publications on the major events of the last seven days. As […]
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You can look it up. Whenever the game gets a little out of whack, the powers that be try to level the playing field. For example, after the pitchers dominated in 1968, the mound was lowered the next year. So laugh if you will, but this idea, from the pen of cartoonist John McPherson, seems […]
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“A-Rod makes more than Marlins Roster” Rodriguez: $28,000,000 Marlins: $21,800,000* * Active roster includes Lee Gardner, Kevin Gregg, Mike Hendrickson, Logan Kensing, Matt Lindstrom, Andrew Miller, Ricky Nolasco, Scott Olsen, Renyel Pinto, Taylor Tankersley, Rick VandenHurk, Paul Hoover, Matt Treanor, Robert Andino, Jorge Cantu, Mike Jacobs, Hanley Ramirez, Dan Uggla, Jason Wood, Alfredo Amexaga, Brett […]
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I heard about this Washington Post item via one of my favorite podcasts, The Tony Kornheiser Show. The raging redhead rails against this analysis of the new edifice by WaPo architecture columnist Philip Kennicott, calling him a variety of colorful names and attacking his skills as a writer. The opening paragraph is apparently what set […]
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How come we’re not hearing much about Vindicated these days? Just a week ago it was such hot news. Now, nothing. I imagine I’ll be reviewing it at some point, but so far I haven’t seen it among any of the baseball book reviews published so far.
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I felt it was my duty to report that Canseco will be the subject of a Nightline segment this evening. As a bonus, the page links to an excerpt from Vindicated. Man, that show has gone downhill since Ted Koppel left.
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Yeah, I know what I said, but here are a few fallout items of note on the Canseco project. The most “impressive” of the bunch comes from the mind of Pat Jordan on Deadspin.com, who started the whole ballplayer-as-writer business with his 1960 books A Short Season and The Pennant Race. He comes to the […]
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I’m not going to spend a lot of time rehashing all the news that comes out about Vindicated. They’re pretty much rehashings of the same story, Rodriguez this, Ordonez that, blah, blah, blah. Here’s a piece from today’s New York Times; it will probably be the last from the Bookshelf until the actual reviews start […]
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“Weighing the Committee Record: A Balanced Review of the Evidence Regarding Performance Enhancing Drugs in Baseball” Is that like FOX News is “clear and balanced?” The official press release: Minority Report: No Easy Answers in Clemens Steroid Use Case Details Don’t All Add Up For Pitcher or Trainer, Investigators Find WASHINGTON, D.C., March 25, 2008 […]
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(and not because of the steroid injection metaphor) “Did Roger Clemens lie to us?” [Rep. Tom] Davis said in a release accompanying the report [ released today questioning whether the seven-time Cy Young Award winner lied in his testimony before the panel last month]. “Some of the evidence seems to say he did; other information […]
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ESPN.com uses this language for its headline of the Associated Press story on the Petroskey resignation: HOF president resigns amid ‘fiduciary’ questions The reader will note the quote marks around fiduciary. The Hall did not detail Petroskey’s actions. Spokesman Brad Horn said the executive committee believed they weren’t criminal and that he did not benefit […]
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According to this item in today’s on-line Publisher’s Weekly: As Jose Canseco’s Vindicated arrives in stores, the controversial baseball player’s relationship with former Yankee pitcher Roger Clemens is under new scrutiny, as federal authorities investigate whether Clemens committed perjury when he denied using performance-enhancing drugs while testifying under oath to a Congressional committee. Canseco’s second […]
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According to a press release issued this afternoon: Dale A. Petroskey, president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, has resigned, effective immediately, the Executive Committee of the Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors announced today. The Executive Committee issued this statement: “By mutual agreement, the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors […]
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This amusing item, from the Chicago Tribune. Ah, the joyful hijinks of spring training.
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According to this piece in the New York Daily News, Jose Canseco’s book tours in California “may take an abrupt detour: The former slugger and admitted steroid user is expected to have a face-to-face meeting with IRS special agent Jeff Novitzky, the government’s lead steroid investigator who is now focusing his efforts on whether pitcher […]
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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
* Those silly Americans
April 14, 2008
The BBC’s analysis of the American pastime, courtesy correspondent Kevin Connolly. can be read read here, or heard on BBC Baseball (try to zero in on time code 19:22). By the way, Mr. Connolly, the name of the song is not “Take Me Out to the Ball Park.” And, dear anchor, it is my understanding […]
Tagged as: Baseball News, Commentary, England
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