Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Baseball Reflections posted this review of High Fives, Pennant Drives, and Fernandomania: A Fan’s History of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Glory Years (1977-1981), by Paul Haddad. Just in time for Opening Day in Japan (which just passed. Sorry for the late post): baseball terms in Japanese! Another late post: GQ ran this profile on broadcasting […]
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Several new titles arrived over the past week including: Before the Curse: The Chicago Cubs’ Glory Years, 1870-1945, by Randy Roberts and Carson Cunningham A People’s History of Baseball, by Mitchell Nathanson Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest Maverick, by Paul Dickson (Of The Dickson Baseball Dictionary fame) The Big Show: Charles M. Conlon’s Golden Age Baseball […]
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As a public service reminder, remember to set your clocks ahead one hour before turning in to night. The Mets, and to a lesser extent the Astros, will be falling back as they celebrate their 50th anniversary. David Brooks, the social commentator, published this piece in yesterday’s New York Times on the seemingly impossible tasks […]
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Zack Hample, baseball author and collector extraordinaire, discovered this fun find: an expense sheet for the NY Mets in 1962. The per diem for most of the team seemed to have been $17.15. Today that would be, like, a million dollars.
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From the Feb. 20 New York Times: “The New York Times sportswriter who covered the Mets in 1962, their first season, recalls the cast of characters who gathered in St. Petersburg, Fla., for spring training.” I’m sure many more pieces about the Mets of old will appear during the course of the season. If nothing […]
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Due to the vagaries of the publishing world, there are bound to be additional books on the Fenway Park and Mets anniversaries. Case in point, Curt Smith, who specializes in paying homage to the men and women who have brought the game to millions of fans over the years on radio and television, gives his […]
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Fifty may not be as impressive as 100 when it comes to celebrating an anniversary, but it’s still a notable achievement. They NY Mets hit the big 5-oh this year and, like the titles about Fenway Park, the hoopla began early. Matthew Silverman, who carries on in the proud tradition of authors like Glenn Stout, […]
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The following message comes from Richard J. Puerzer of Hofstra University. * * * April 2012 will mark the 50th anniversary of the New York Mets, one of the most popular and culturally significant baseball franchises. On Thursday through Sunday, April 26-28, 2012, Hofstra University will host a conference to consider all aspects of the […]
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The old joke goes, “You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?” That’s kind of the way I’ve come to think about my library. Obviously there’s no way I can acquire every book I’d like, plus the ones I do have, gathered over 30 years, are starting to make a dent in the floor. […]
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The former pitcher and author of two no-hitters for the St. Louis Cardinals passed away Nov. 3. He lent his name to a book of anecdotes about his former team (he also pitched briefly for the Houston Astros) in Bob Forsch’s Tales from the Cardinal Dugout, published in 2003.
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Sometimes I wonder, with all the new books coming out every year, why anyone would want to read something they’ve already read before. So many books, so little time. But while working on the 501 Book project I came across several titles in my library that I had never read, which no doubt led to […]
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Take heart, Houston. You may have the worst team in the Majors this season, but you can relive past glorious and otherwise amuse yourselves by reading these Astros-related titles, posted by Ray Kerby and Darrell Pittman on AstrosDaily.com.
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Greg Spira passed along this link to an NJ.com review of five New York-centric books, including (with a “symbolic” thumbs up-thumbs down): 1961: The Inside Story of the Maris-Mantle Home Run Chase, by Phil Pepe (-) Donnie Baseball: The Definitive Biography of Don Mattingly, by Mike Shalin (-) Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The […]
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My annual Spring Baseball Book Roundup was recently posted to the Bookreporter.com site. Titles include: 56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports Joe DiMaggio: The Long Vigil Campy: The Two Lives of Roy Campanella Uppity: My Untold Story About the Games People Play The House That Ruth Built: A New Stadium, the […]
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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
