Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Haven’t been posting much lately for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, I’ve been working on the final galleys for the 501 book. Almost done with that and then I have to create the index, which should be interesting. I’ve also been researching a stand-alone web-presence for the book, which is proving a bit […]
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Spitball Magazine announced the finalists for the publications annual CASEY award for best baseball book of the year. The titles include: Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, and Assassination during the 1934 Tour of Japan, by Robert K. Fitts Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest Maverick, by Paul Dickson Connie Mack: The Turbulent and Triumphant Years, 1915-1931, by […]
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Sorry for the sporadic posts, but still trying to squeeze in a few entries as I can. ♦ The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky., posted this review of Bushville Wins. Upshot: “…Klima intersperses interesting details with an obsession to link the team with Miller Brewing, the Milwaukee-based company that helped finance the new enterprise. There were […]
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♦ The Washington Post published this piece on Tony La Russa’s memoir, One Last Strike: Fifty Years in Baseball, Ten and a Half Games Back, and One Final Championship Season. ♦ Better late than never: It seems the Seattle Post-Intelligencer finally got around to posting a review of Zack Hample’s 2007 publication, Watching Baseball Smarter: […]
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♦ From the Tulsa World, this on on Robert Fitts’ Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, and Assassination during the 1934 Tour of Japan. Upshot: “It is very well-researched and a balanced account, but it occasionally threatens to sag under the weight of such details. Readers need not be fans of baseball to appreciate the sport […]
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John Klima discusses his latest book, Bushville Wins!: The Wild Saga of the 1957 Milwaukee Braves and the Screwballs, Sluggers, and Beer Swiggers Who Canned the New York Yankees and Changed Baseball, on WUWM, Milwaukee’s NPR presence. In the “here’s something you don’t see everyday” department, author Don Spivey wants his biography on Satchel Paige […]
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Saw the first episode of Showtime’s The Franchise last night. Not much to say, really. The focus was Ozzie Guillen (who was suspended early on for his remarks about Fidel Castro), closer Heath Bell’s woes, and the team’s overall ups and downs over the first three months of the season. (Warning: the program contains lots […]
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With the Washington Nationals doing so well, it’s not surprising that some media outlets are jumping on this unlikely bandwagon. The Atlantic posted this article about the local fans behavior, unaccustomed as they are to being in a position where they can lord it over lesser ball clubs (like the Mets). The Washington Post, on […]
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♦ The New York Times posted their annual baseball roundup, albeit with fewer titles than usual. But remember, it’s quality, not quantity. Jim Bouton offers his review of two Yankees books: Marty Appel’s Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees from Before the Babe to After the Boss and Damn Yankees: Twenty-Four Major League Writers on […]
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One of the “problems” working on my book is that I haven’t had as much time to read other books. Several authors have been kind enough to send me their work and I apologize for be so slow to get to them and hope to remedy that in the near future. At the moment, I’m […]
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♦ The London Free Press (Ontario) published this piece on Calico Joe. Upshot: Calico Joe has home run power. The baseball portions, particularly the first 100 pages or so, are more delicious than a Fenway frank. But Grisham saves his heaviest hitting in the 198-page Calico Joe for the second half, where push comes to […]
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So, back to bidness. ♦ The Hardball Times reviewed Great Hitting Pitchers, published by the Society for American Baseball Research. ♦ Baseball Reflections posted this on Major League Dads: Baseball’s Best Players Reflect on the Fathers Who Inspired Them to Love the Game. ♦ I don’t know if this really counts as a review, but […]
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[Note: My spring baseball roundup appears on Bookreporter.com and is reposted here as individual reviews for your convenience.] Harvey Araton tells a touching story in Driving Mr. Yogi: Yogi Berra, Ron Guidry, and Baseball’s Greatest Gift. Reminiscent of David Halberstam’s 2002 The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship, Driving Mr. Yogi is a bit more […]
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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
Bits and pieces
August 30, 2012
Time for the occasional declutter of the accumulated links and stories, so here goes. “Dan Barry’s Bottom of the 33rd has won the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing, which honors a nonfiction book on the subject of sports.” More here. From the Yogi Berra Museum: Former Yankee star second baseman Bobby Richardson, a cornerstone […]
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