Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Waaay too early. A damn shame, but perhaps also a lesson. Books by and about the Hall of Famer include: The Art of Hitting Tony! Tony Gwynn’s Total Baseball Player Gwynn was also a major component of George F. Will’s Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball. My mind may be playing tricks on me, […]
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The New York Times publishes what I would call a commentary piece/short feature (as opposed to the regular sports news) in its Sunday edition. That’s where I found this piece by John Oudens on “A Baseball Binge Woven From Dreams.” Basically, we’re talking about visiting five ballparks in five days, something many fans would love […]
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Spitball: The Literary Baseball Magazine announced yesterday that it has purchased Minor Trips, a newsletter devoted to minor league baseball, now in its 24th year of publication. Minor Trips will continue to be published in the same format and under the same title as before, with founder and former publisher Bob Carson remaining involved as […]
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The comedian has purchased a summer home in the Hamptons that previously belong to Babe Ruth.
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All politics aside, it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the historical event of a sitting president visiting the Baseball Hall of Fame. In his remarks, Barack Obama said “So I love baseball; America loves baseball. It continues to be our national pastime. And for any baseball fan out there, you’ve got to […]
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Next on the tour: Connecticut Tigers (Tigers) Kane County Cougars (Cubs) Lakeland Flying Tigers (Tigers) Lynchburg Hillcats (Braves) New Britain Rock Cats (Twins) New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Blue Jays) Sacramento Cats (As) By the way, a casual glance at the list of minor league baseball nicknames shows a disproportionate number of birds. Cats looove birds. […]
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Whatever happened to this locker room (and cultural) philosophy? Rumor’s out that “Former clubhouse manager Charlie Samuels has been shopping a book to publishers, and it’s sure to air some dirty laundry.” (ESPN story) Samuels, who worked for the Mets from 1976-2010, was convicted of stealing $2.3 million worth of memorabilia from the club. $2.3 […]
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Is he destined to be a pop culture touchstone? From this week’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me from host Peter Sagal: In just a minute, Carl gets ejected when umpires find rhyme tar on his neck. It’s the Listener Limerick Challenge.
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But how sad is this: The Newark Bears Professional Baseball team and its concessions company are hosting a liquidation sale and auction at 10am on April 26, 2014. Location: Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium, 450 Broad Street, Newark, NJ 07102 Business and personal items will be available for purchase. There will be items offered through set pricing as […]
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Ralph Kiner, one of the game’s all-time great sluggers, passed away today at the age of 91. Kiner, who led the National League in home runs for seven straight seasons, was favorite of mine on one of the best trio of broadcasters in baseball. He was the last to go from his NY Mets booth-mates […]
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Hey, don’t blame me. I probably would have forgotten about these if it wasn’t a segment on Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. Two excellent pieces on Alex Rodriguez in The New York Times over the past few days. One was this from William C. Rhoden, who asks the question, “When will baseball, which only belatedly […]
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Sorry, couldn’t think of a pithy headline, I’m that blasé. Say what you want about the guy — his arrogance, his ego, his need for attention, etc. — I think he nevertheless should be accorded the same due process as anyone else. Except DP doesn’t seem to apply to athletes. A lot of chatter on […]
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Yesterday I posted about the mockery sportscaster Dan Le Batard made with his Hall of Fame voting privileges. Well, he doesn’t have to worry about that any more. According to this piece on ESPN, he “has been kicked out of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America for one year and barred from future Hall of […]
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Danny Peary, author or coauthor of numerous baseball titles including Roger Maris: Baseball’s Reluctant Hero and Cult Baseball Players: The Greats, the Flakes, the Weird and the Wonderful among many others, was unable to add this comment in response to yesterday’s post, “All he is saying, is give Rose a chance,” about Kostya Kennedy’s commentary […]
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According to the Orlando Sentinel, “Mark Gilbert, a prominent Democratic Party fundraiser from Boca Raton, may be on his way to New Zealand and Samoa” as U.S. ambassador. If Gilbert’s name seems at all familiar, you’re an older baseball uber-fan: Gilbert appeared in seven games for the Chicago White Sox in 1985, batting .273 in […]
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Congrats to the newest electees to the Hall of Fame — Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Frank Thomas. But shed a tear for Craig Biggio, who missed joining them by two votes. At least one potential vote is attributed to that genius who declined to vote for anyone on the who played in the PED […]
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Congratulations to Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and Frank Thomas, who were announced today as the newest inductees to the Baseball Hall of Fame. According to the organization’s press release, this marks just the second time that three players were elected in their first year of eligibility. From a fan’s point of view, I think it’s […]
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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
Context is all: Ian Kinsler and ESPN The Magazine
March 7, 2014
It should come as no surprise that the ESPN The Magazine article about Ian Kinsler referred to earlier this week on my other blog, has generated some buzz. In the grand scale of things, it won’t matter, but for now, with a routinely dull spring training under way, with A-Rod out of the picture, the […]
Tagged as: Alex Rodriguez, Detroit Tigers, ESPN the Magazine, Ian Kinsler, Texas Rangers
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