Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
From the category archives:
Veteran journalist Daniel Okrent has launched a web site to promote his new book, Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. Frankly, it’s kind of bare bones, but it does include a page (mostly blurbs) about 9 Innings: The Anatomy of Baseball Game, originally published in 1984 and revised in 2000. Here’s a review […]
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This week’s best-selling baseball books, according to Amazon.com on Friday, January 8. HAPPY LATE YEAR! Title Rank General 2010 Baseball Forecaster (Ron Shandler’s Baseball Forecaster) 1 Baseball Prospectus 2010 2 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis 3 Baseball America 2010 Prospect Handbook: The Comprehensive Guide to Rising Stars from the […]
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In this case, it’s the craft of writing. Wrightinhood.com posted this list of sayings from some of the greats in the game, including Ty Cobb, Yogi Berra, Bill Veeck, and Crash Davis (?) and how they can apply to the creative process.
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And when it comes to sportswriting, the forecast doesn’t appear too rosy, at least according to this well-done essay from the Pitchers and Poets (motto: “Both have their moments”) blog. Eric, the author of the entry titled “On Writing, Baseball Writing, and the 21st Century,” concludes the thought-provoker, If Jim Bouton was on today’s version […]
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One of the major complaints from fans and (especially) non-fans is that the games take too long. Don’t look at it as a lot of down time; instead perceive it as a chance to catch up on your reading. That’s why I love compilations such as those published by The Washington Post‘s Thomas Boswell and […]
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Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated‘s senior baseball writer, was already the subject of an interview about The Yankee Years by his employer, but here’s another. Does the fact that SI is interviewing one of its own with one of its own (in this most recent case Alex Belth is credited, although there’s no reproter named for […]
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Ya gotta start ’em young. The youth of America, as Casey Stengel would say.
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I have given major props to the L.A. Daily News‘ Tom Hoffarth for his thoughtful month-long series of baseball book reviews. Today’s the last day, so here’s his “whole freakin’ list” which lists and links all 30 titles. He was also gracious enough — self-promotion alert — to mention The Bookshelf in his wrap-up. Thanks […]
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There’s a lot of material that’s fallen by the wayside as I try to keep this blog fresh with the latest in baseball book publishing information. But in the words of the revered philosopher, Regis Philbin, “I’m only one man!” So I’m using this space to try to catch up. Some of the items might […]
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It never ceases to amaze me — and I’ll always be grateful — that the blogosphere has opened a new channel of communication and that there are celebrities willing to talk with, in many cases, with “just plain folks.” A good example is BrokenCowboy, “Sports views with a West Coast Bias.” The blogger, who chooses […]
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Catching up… From the Manchester Union Leader, a sports column with reviews of New England-centric media, including Senior Year: A Father, A Son, and High School Baseball, by Dan Shaughnessy; High & Outside, a documentary on Bill “Spaceman” Lee; and Yastrzemski, by Carl Yastrzemski. From The London Independent (the unlikely source), this report on the […]
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Curt Smith, author of The Voice, was interviewed on MLB.com.
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Poets are like baseball pitchers. Both have their moments. The intervals are the tough things. Robert Frost Frost’s favorite baseball team was the Boston Red Sox; his favorite player was Ted Williams. After attending an all-star game in Washington in 1956, Frost wrote a story for Sports Illustrated, “A Perfect Day – A Day of […]
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The things you find when you’re cleaning up. Came across this piece I did for Fastball.com, a now-defunct esoteric baseball site. It’s one of several “theme” teams I created in my obviously too-copius spare time. I’m sure there are many other plasyers who fit the bill since I worked on this. Pitchers: Robbie “Samuel” Beckett […]
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<p>From Vonnegutweb.com:</p><blockquote dir=”ltr” style=”MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px”><p><span style=”color: #333333;”><span class=”bulkTitle”><strong><a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=250,height=307,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0’); return false” href=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/00vonnegut.jpg”><img title=”00vonnegut” height=”184″ alt=”00vonnegut” src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/00vonnegut.jpg” width=”150″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 5px 5px 0px” /></a> Vonnegut at <em>Sports Illustrated</em></strong></span></span></p> <p><span class=”bulkLead”>Kurt Vonnegut worked briefly at SI</span> until being told to write a story about a race horse that had jumped the rail […]
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Who would have thunk it? The co-author of the printed version of Ken Burns’ Baseball documentary claims he was never much of a baseball fan, prior to the project. The reason is reminiscent of Ray Kinsella’s rationale in Field of Dreams: I’ve never liked baseball much, in part because my father has always loved it […]
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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
* Time for Times
April 11, 2010
A couple of book-related items in today’s New Yotk Times sports section: In the print edition, Tim Wendel wrote “They Could Throw That Speedball,” as part of the “Spotlight” column, about the difficulties in coming up with the definitive answer to the question, “who was the fastest pitcher in history?” With all due respect to […]
Tagged as: Dixie Walker, Maury Allen, New York Times, Susan Walker, Tim Wendel
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