Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Just finished a review of the new John Wayne bio for Bookreporter, so I thought it would be appropriate to remind you that he starred in a 1955 television production of Rookie of the Year, aired some 36 years after the Black Sox scandal, which serves as an underscoring theme. Directed by John Ford, the […]
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Here’s my podcast listening schedule: Monday: Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me Tuesday: Extra Hot Great Friday: Pop Culture Happy Hour Wednesday and Thursday are used for whatever other programs are around that I pay attention to depending on the topi (Fresh Air, The Leonard Lopate Show, The Sporkful, The Gist, etc.) One episode of the […]
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Is something I’ve never been into. I find very little “real” about it. And I don’t mean to keep on picking on Brandon Steiner (see here and here), but I accidentally came on his eponymous SNY show, The Hookup with Brandon Steiner, last night. I say “accidentally” because my on-air TV guide said it was […]
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Note: Just like Chuck Lorre’s “vanity cards” at the end of The Big Bang Theory, you should read these list stories to their conclusion; the end is always changing, even though the theme is basically the same, finishing up with a self-promotional message. On with the show… Here are the top ten baseball books as […]
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This year marks the 10th anniversary of the debut of one of my favorite TV shows of all time: Lost. The iconic program earned extra credit for me by including baseball in its canon: And here: Happy anniversary, Lost! Update: It appears, once again, my math is off. I was basing this entry on a […]
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In advance of my Bookshelf Conversation with Jonathan Eig which I will post tomorrow, here’s a blast from the past. Climax! was one of those live-performance anthology television series in the 1950s sponsored by a major corporation, in this case Chrysler. This 1956 episode, The Lou Gehrig Story, starred Wendell Corey as Gehrig, character actor […]
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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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(Speaking of “nations,” in looking for an appropriate clip for this piece, I sought out the theme for the news segment of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, a precursor to Saturday Night Live‘s “Weekend Update.” I was reminded what a big deal RML-I was in its time. Some of the guests included such high-profilers as John […]
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ABC cancels Back in the Game Back in the Game, starring James Caan and Maggie Lawson, has effectively been cancelled, though all 13 episodes will air. However, no more will be produced, which presumably will make way for Suburgatory to return to the schedule. I might actually go back and watch the rest (after passing […]
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I’m grateful for this piece in today’s New York Times by Richard Sandomir critiquing the network’s handling of the last game of the World Series. A main point is the use made popular in the last few years of the baseball version of the “sideline reporter,” only much less serious. In football, a SR will […]
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Forgot to post this amusing standoff between Joe Kelly of the St. Louis Cardinals and Scott Van Slyke of the Los Angeles Dodgers prior to the final game of the NLCS (love the frustrated umpire towards the end of the clip). Enjoy.
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The Cardboard Connection ran this story about Teddy Kremer, a 30-year-old with Down syndrome, whose love for the Cincinnati Reds is apparently as big as his heart. Kremer had the opportunity to serve as honorary bat boy for the Reds, was asked to return, and had a hand in this special moment for Todd Frazier […]
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Though apparently, you don’t want to. From Houston CBS website: This past Sunday according to Nielson ratings, the Astros and Indians game drew a rating of 0.0 in the greater Houston area. I imagine this sets a record of some sort. Way to go, ‘Stros!
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Thanks to KoolKat_1960, who suggested this as one of the classic baseball vidgame adverts following yesterday’s post on the subject: Which led me to a few more, featuring Dustin Pedroia, that should go into whatever Baseball (Video Game) Hall of Fame there might be (or should be, if such an entity does not yet exist).
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With apologies to that noted philosopher John McEnroe. In addition to splurging on annual baseball publications, I have collected the Fall preview issue of TV Guide since the late 1970s (I also get the Entertainment Weekly TV issue, which hits the newsstands at the same time). It’s a real hoot to go back to them […]
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There’s a semi-regular feature on NPR’s Sound Check that examines songs and asks the question, “That was a hit?” That came to my mind when was asked to like the Facebook page for Back in the Game, a new series coming to ABC. Here’s the premise, from the show’s web page: Terry Gannon Jr. (Maggie […]
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Note: This entry is a combination of the official press release sent by the Hall of Fame and my comments/edits. With the release of Legendary Entertainment’s landmark film 42 this spring, the worlds of movies and baseball came together for fans across the globe. The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will recognize the […]
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This can be either endlessly amusing or incredibly frustrating: commercials read by radio broadcasters during games, as per Bob Greene in this CNN piece (with commentary by this piece from RadioLink.com. In sports, everything seems to be “brought to you by…” and some business is the “official (fill-in-the-blank) of the (team)…” One spot for 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
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
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