Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Would if I could upon learning that Jonah (The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First) Keri is working on the “definitive” history of the team. Although I was not born there, my maternal side hails from that city and I have fond memories of family […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
By the way, it’s still winter so why aren’t we hearing snow-themed songs anymore? “Winter Wonderland” and “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” among others, are not “holiday” songs, per se, so they’d still be valid. Just sayin’. Thought I saw my first “annual” at the bookstore last week, but it was a fantasy publication, so it […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
One of my favorite off-beat baseball sites is Craig Robinson’s Flip Flop Flyball. (I wrote about Robinson and his work awhile back.) Rather than the usual staid numbers, Robinson — a graphic artist originally from Great Britain — takes unusual items and turns them into colorful graphic representations. Among the topics he’s considered on the […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
to Clyde King, who turns 86 today. And to William Elsworth “Dummy” Hoy, the first deaf Major Leaguer, who was born this day in 1862. Hoy was responsible (depending on whose story your believe) for helping to create umpires’ signals. His descendants have created a website in his honor and are coming out with a […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
You may not have heard of this one, since he never pitcher in the Major Leagues, but for those interested in Cuban baseball, here comes Pedro Luis Lazo, el Rascacielos de Cuba (Pedro Luis Lazo, the Cuban Skyscraper”) about the star hurler for Pinar del Rio, by Antonio Martínez De Osaba.
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
I should copyright that. Actually it’s The Man With Two Arms, which sounds like a science fiction title but is really about an ambidextrous pitcher. Judging by the review from Publishers Weekly below, it seems better suited for young adults than adult adults. The book is published by Overlook and due out in February. You […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
So what do you think: what will be some of the topics we’ll see on the bookshelves next year? I would venture to guess there will be at least a couple on this year’s World Series, including the quickies put out by the local newspapers. Plus autobios of key players (Sabathia, Utley, Werth). The caveat […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Or at least Bill Lee. From the Baseball Hall of Fame: Hall of Fame Teams Up with NASAto Help Students Bring Baseball to Mars COOPERSTOWN, NY – The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has its sights set on Mars. And its plans just might include bats, gloves and balls – if some Central New York […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Don’t you think that some intrepid reporter or team will work on uncovering that list of ballplayers who tested positive for steroids for publication sometime soon?
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Move over, Jose. Roger Clemens wants to join the band of ballplayers turned … well, words fail me. According to news reports, Clemens is considering writing his own book to answer allegations about his use of PED. During an on-line interview on Houstonist.com, the question was asked, “Do you believe that you will get a […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
That’s the date the Selena Roberts book on Alex Rodriguez is due out. Judging by the AP item, it’s like a run-down play: …Roberts’ unauthorized A-Rod was originally planned for May, then was moved up to mid-April after Roberts, a Sports Illustrated reporter, broke the news that the Yankees slugger had tested positive for steroids […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Dermont McEvoy of Publishers Weekly published the magazine’s annual baseball roundup. No surprise, but this year’s selections are heavy on the “bad boy” books, including Selena Robert’s A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez (April, Harper Collins). PW contacted Roberts’s editor at HarperCollins, senior v-p/ executive editor David Hirshey. Hirshey, who in the past has […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor. The election of Jim Rice to the Baseball Hall of Fame will necessitate author Kevin Hunt to re-write at least part of his manuscript — and definitely update the title, which was The Baseball Hall of Fame: Why Jim Rice Belongs There and Mark McGwire Does Not, For […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Is it a case of sour grapes? Are some publishers and writers, having been spurned by the “greatest living player” piling on the unpleasant comments? Read Leon Neyfahk’s piece — “New Willie Mays Biography Comes With Strings Attached” — in the New York Observer and judge for yourself. “In exchange for his cooperation, Mr. Mays […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
Jim Hirsch, who has been chosen to write the new biography of Willie Mays will reportedly receive $1.5 million for his efforts. “Willie has agreed to cooperate to give me access, but the conclusions are all my own,” the author told the NY Post. “My books don’t pull punches. If I were just to write […]
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
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
