Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Alex Johnson, the 1970 American League batting champion, died Feb. 28 due to complications from cancer at the age of 72. Johnson played in the heyday of my baseball card collecting — the late 1960s to 70s. As such, he is, unfortunately, one of an increasing number of players from that period who are shuffling […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
A shande (Yiddish for “a shame”). Of course, everyone knows Nimoy, who grew up in a observant Jewish home in the Boston area, as Mr. Spock. But one of his earliest appearances came in an uncredited role in the 1951 baseball feature film. Rhubarb. Pay careful attention at the 2:08 mark. But perhaps […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
So now, after all this time and all the denials, Alex Rodriguez has “formally” apologized. And not through a statement read by his attorney or PR functionary, but in the form of a hand-written letter. (I wonder what soer of planning went into the decision to present the apology that way, rather than typed out. […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
So now the NY Yankees are getting set to retire another number: Andy Pettitte’s 46. This has led to a couple of speculative ponderings. One, should they reward an admitted PED user? And, when is this retirement stuff going to stop?
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Ain’t Facebook wonderful? It gives one the chance to find so many interesting people. One of the things that never ceases to amaze me is the number of current and former athletes who are social networking and how “just plain folks” they are. Case in point, Ellis Valentine. Just like the rest of us, he […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
At least not from the Veterans Committee output. The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s Golden Era Committee announced balloting results Monday for its 2014 election of players, managers, executives and umpires. The ballot featured nine former players and one former executive and was considered by a 16-person committee featuring eight Hall of Famers, […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Because you can certainly put trophies on your bookshelf. Ian Kinsler lost to Boston Red Sox Dustin Pedroia for the American League Gold Glove Award for second basemen. He did, however, pick up the Wilson Defensive Player of the Year award. The Gold Gloves are award by Rawlings, a sporting goods company and one of […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The former Diamondback, Yankee, and As pitcher died last Friday as the result of fall in a climbing accident. The exact circumstances surrounding his demise remain unclear after an autopsy.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
What is this, Sons of Anarchy? Former major leaguer-turned-writer Jose Canseco accidentally blew off his middle finger while cleaning a handgun. Naturally, there’s all sorts of early speculation on the severity of the injury. Some source are saying only that he shot himself in the hand, without the particulars. Another book in the future?
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Last Friday marked the 25th anniversary of the World Series earthquake in San Fransisco which occurred just minutes before Game One of the face-off between the host Giants and cross-bay Rival Oakland As. And we have not one, but two documentaries to commemorate the occasion. One, The Day The Series Stopped, was produced under ESPN’s […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
I guess the just-retired future Hall of Famer wants to keep busy. Less than a week after appearing in his final game, Jeter announced the launch of The Players’ Tribune a new website promising to give fans (subscribers?) “a place where pro athletes can “connect directly with our fans, with no filter.” This was a […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
It’s a shame that Derek Jeter’s final days as a Yankee have to be enmeshed in this “debate” over his place in team and MLB history. When I first heard about Keith Olbermann’s “Jeter smackdown,” I thought, “there Keith goes again, trying to show he’s the smartest guy in the room.” But after listening to […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
(Because you can put all your Jeter memorabilia on a bookshelf.) Tomorrow is Derek Jeter’s final home game. Tomorrow is the first day of Rosh Hashana. Tomorrow, the weather forecast calls for rain. God is not a Yankees fan. Note: 100% chance of rain… So this begs the question: What will happen? Will the Yankees […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Because you can put all this Derek Jeter memorabilia on your bookshelf… Yesterday I came across this piece on ESPN: “Yankees to wear Derek Jeter patch.” There was a lot of social media chatter about the appropriateness of this gesture. Sports fans debated whether an active player should be honored like this. Such tributes usually […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
I guess as the season goes on and the team in question is not doing particularly well, sportswriters and broadcasters have to look for ways to appear fresh. Is this the best you can do? Follow some anonymous reliever (with all dues respects) as he makes the courageous journey to the ball park on — […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The movie icon passed away yesterday at 89. There’s not much of a baseball connection here, although I did find this: Would love to know the backstory here: what were the circumstances in which she came to sign a baseball? Anyway, as of this posting, the ball is selling on Amazon for $1,299. Of course, […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Robin Williams died Monday, in an apparent case of suicide. The outpouring of grief and condolences would probably still be going on if not for the short attention span of an entertainment-gobbling public that has diverted their thoughts to yesterday’s passing of movie icon Lauren Bacall. To be honest, I found Williams a kind of […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will recognize the twin traditions of baseball and film when, for the ninth consecutive year, it hosts the Baseball Film Festival in Cooperstown, Sept. 19-21. Filmmakers can submit their work to be considered for the Festival through Friday, Sept. 5. Films can be of any length and […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Kids, ask your parents. Because you can put all these news reports on your bookshelf. Either David price was traded to the Detroit Tigers or he wasn’t. Yahoo Sports reports that he wasn’t, that it was hoax that fooled even the MLB Network. The “time stamp” on the “retraction” attributed to ken Rosenthal MLB piece […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
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
Got to step it up and go
October 3, 2014
Because you can put a stopwatch on your bookshelf. The regular season was over but the post-season hadn’t started yet. What to do? I know! Let’s talk about how to speed up the games. That’s appropriate right before you air even longer games, thanks to team introductions (including the trainers) and more elaborate “honoring America” […]
Tagged as: Baseball rule changes
{ Comments on this entry are closed }