Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Catching up of some entries that were in my “draft” box. My initial response to beginning this eight-part series on Netflix was, this is kind of boring. And these guys curse a lot. But on further review, there’s a lot to recommend this in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at one of the game’s most storied franchises. Tops […]
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Except replace “still” with “not” and “rock and roll” with “baseball.” 60 Minutes featured a segment on the Savannah Bananas in its April 13 episode. Jesse Cole, the man behind the (yellow) curtain, has written several books about the team and marketing, including Banana Ball: The Unbelievably True Story of the Savannah Bananas, which is […]
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The actor who played the title role in the Dennis the Menace TV show (1959-1963), passed away yesterday at the age of 73. Here’s his obituary from The New York Times. The baseball connection? An episode from the third season featuring none other than Sandy Koufax in “Dennis and the Dodger.” Despite his reputation as […]
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Did you know that they were supposed to turn Field of Dreams into a series on Peacock? Neither did I until I read this article. But if past is prelude, maybe it’s a good thing that the project was scrapped. I mean, look at the small screen versions of Ball Four, The Bad News Bears, […]
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Games are shorter by a good chunk, thanks to the speed-up rules now in place. MLB thinks that’s a good thing, but who are they trying to convince? “Real” baseball fans, IMO, don’t care about the length of the games. The longer the better (unless the weather is crappy). That’s what separates baseball from other […]
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Was listening to Extra Hot Great, one of my favorite podcasts ever, and heard a mention of this under “Winners of the Week”: “Lou Gehrig Series From Lorne Michaels in the Works at Apple” From the Hollywood Reporter article: “The iPhone maker/streamer is teaming with Universal Television and Lorne Michaels’ Broadway Video to adapt author […]
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A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes. (See my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks.”) In addition, occasionally […]
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January 3? Already? Where did the year go? From RoyalsReview.com, this list of “15 books for baseball fans—and some for other sports fans, too.” (Note: not necessarily new releases.) Peter Dreier, co-author of Baseball Rebels: The Players, People, and Social Movements That Shook Up the Game and Changed America and Major League Rebels: Baseball […]
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Did you know that Willie Mays “outed over 7,000 opponents while playing center field”? I didn’t realize there were that many gay players. Seriously, the writer of this piece on Collider.com about the forthcoming HBO documentary, Say Hey, Willie Mays! has some work to do. Other than this very specific usage, I have never seen “out” […]
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♦ From Sports Collectors Daily: “Mickey Mantle: A Life In Memorabilia acts as a museum tour through Mantle’s life. It includes items from Lane’s extensive and valuable collection as well as stories from Mantle’s 18-year career. “‘This book is as close as one can get to these artifacts without actually holding them,’ [author Steven] Lane […]
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Going down the rabbit hole while researching the previous entry on M*A*S*H, I came across a few more interesting items about baseball and episodic television from ME-TV. Submitted for your amusement: 6 forgotten TV shows about baseball that all struck out Can you name the TV show by its baseball episode? Star Trek in baseball, […]
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For whatever reason, M*A*S*H has long been one of my “comfort” TV programs. May seen kind of weird, latching on to an incongruous comedy about war. Oh, well. One of last night’s episodes on ME-TV — the cable station for aging baby boomers with shows like Perry Mason, Adam-12, The Flintstones, etc. — was “War […]
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Albeit Amazon TV. I wrote about this more than a year ago but there’s new information. According to several sources, they’re trying once more to bring the acclaimed film to the small screen. From The Hollywood Reporter (with my emphasis in bold): The Good Place actress D’Arcy Carden (left in photo below) is in talks […]
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Because you can keep a viewing device on your bookshelf. In the most recent episode, “The Fresh Princ-ipal,” the “B” story involves the eponymous hero, suddenly being unable to flip hamburgers in his shop after his friend and frequent customer, Teddy, asks about his technique. Bob’s wife, Linda, asks “What’s going on? Bob, what did […]
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That’s the story from the Hollywood Reporter which reports that Amazon is working on the project. The retail giant/streaming service is developing a TV series based on Penny Marshall’s Tom Hanks and Geena Davis feature, A League of Their Own. Mozart in the Jungle‘s Will Graham and Broad City‘s Abbi Jacobson will co-write and executive produce […]
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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
