Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf — If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here — Page 334

Bits and pieces

Bits and Pieces

Baseball America’s annual book feature includes reviews on several books, CDs, DVDs, and video games. Books include The Soul of Baseball; How Bill James Changed Our View of Baseball; Opening Day; Once Upon a Game; Hideki Matsui, Sportsmanship, Modesty and The Art of the Home Run; Sports Illustrated: The Baseball Books; Brushing Back Jim Crow; […]

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<i>Percentage Baseball</i>: <br>An Appreciation

“Before Bill James, before Moneyball, all the way back in 1964, we published one of the touchstones of mathematical analysis of the sport: Percentage Baseball by Earnshaw Cook. As a result of a conversation about the productive value of the sacrifice bunt, Cook … began putting probabilistic values on every aspect of the game in […]

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Bits and pieces

Bits and Pieces

In recognition of the 60th annversary of Jackie Robinson’s Major League debut, Jonathan Eig appeared on Only a Game to discuss his new book, Opening Day. The OAG page also links to host Bill Littlefield’s review of the book. Crazy ‘o8 author Cait Murphy puts her book through the “Page 99 test.” According to author, […]

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Baseball Book Feature on Bookreporter.com

Review by Ron Kaplan

A few times I year I do a “roundup” of reviews for Bookreporter.com. This year’s batch includes: Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinon’s Furst Season, by Eig The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America, by Posnanski The Cheater’s Guide to Baseball, by Zumsteg Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan’s Guide […]

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Remembering Jackie Robinson:<Br>Author Profile: Jonathan Eig

Author profile/interview by Ron Kaplan

<p><strong>The Jews and Jackie Robinson</strong></p> <p></p> <p>At a time when unenlightened baseball fans and players hurled epithets and <a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=400,height=602,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/joneigspt.jpg”><img title=”Joneigspt” height=”225″ alt=”Joneigspt” src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/joneigspt.jpg” width=”150″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px” /></a> brickbats to protest an African American playing in the major leagues, the Jewish community embraced Jackie […]

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Bits and Pieces:<BR>Remembering Jackie Robinson

<p>Several sources have produced extensive bibliographies on material about Jackie Robinson, including:</p> <ul><li><a href=”http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/robinson/jrrel.html”>Baseball and Jackie Robinson</a>, by The Library of Congress</li> <li>The Baseball Hall of Fame offers a "<a href=”http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/library/biblios/robinson_jackie.htm”>selected bibliography</a>"</li> <li>The Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles produced an extensive page of "<a href=”http://www.aafla.org/9arr/JackieRobinson/jlinks.htm”>Links to other Jackie Robinson and Baseball sites</a>"</li></ul>

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Remembering Jackie Robinson

The following Q&A session with Cal Fussman, author of After Jackie: Pride, Prejudice and Baseball’s Forgotten Heroes — An Oral History, appeared on ESPN.com. Fussman, a contributing editor for ESPN The Magazine and Esquire magazine, compiled interviews with over 100 former major leaguers and other prominent members of society. The dialogue below is reproduced in […]

Tagged as: Jackie Robinson

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Bookshelf review: Jews and Baseball, Volume 1: Entering the American Mainstream, 1871-1948

Review by Ron Kaplan

by Burton A. Boxerman and Benita W. Boxerman, 2007, McFarland Publishing, Jefferson, NC, 232 pages, $32.95. While there have been other books about Jewish baseball players, none packs as much of a scholarly punch as this new title. Every player considered Jewish as defined by the Jewish Major Leaguers baseball card set is accounted for, […]

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Author Profiles: Burton and Benita Boxerman

Author profile/interview by Ron Kaplan

There have been a handful of books about Jews and baseball over the years. Mostly anecdotal in nature, they have served to fuel the conception that the Jewish involvement in professional sports is practically negligible. Burton and Benita Boxerman aim to disprove that notion in their scholarly treatment, Jews and Baseball Volume 1: Entering the […]

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Bits and Pieces

Bits and Pieces

<p><strong>Ripken nixes Imus appearance<a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=180,height=266,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/ripkin.jpg”><img title=”Ripkin” height=”177″ alt=”Ripkin” src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/ripkin.jpg” width=”120″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px” /></a></strong></p> <p>From <em>Publishers Weekly…</em>In the category of "moot," <a href=”http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6432232.html”>Cal Ripken Jr. said he would not appear on the <em>Imus in </em></a><a href=”http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6432232.html”>the Morning</a> radio program because of remarks made by the […]

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Thank You, <i>Sporting News </i>

Industry/Literary Analysis

In a previous post, I wrote that The Sporting News would no longer be printing it’s annual baseball record book. True to their word, however, they have made it available on-line at no charge. The sections, rendered as PDF files, are divided into an Introduction and user’s guide; regular season (yearly leaders, career milestones, general […]

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Bits and Pieces

Bits and Pieces

<p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong><span style=”color: #d70039;”><a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=350,height=229,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/ripkenbook.jpg”><img title=”Ripkenbook” height=”278″ alt=”Ripkenbook” src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/ripkenbook.jpg” width=”495″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 5px 5px 0px; WIDTH: 495px; HEIGHT: 278px” /></a> </span></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong></strong></p> <p><strong><span style=”color: #d70039;”>Ripken on the Road</span></strong><br />Baseball legend and co-author of <em>The Longest […]

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<i>Newsday</i>'s take on <i>7</i>

Reviews from other sources

<p><a href=”http://www.newsday.com/sports/ny-spbest085163079apr08,0,7841122.column?coll=ny-sports-mezz”><em>Newsday</em>’s Neil Best</a> joins the ranks of critics who seem to hate this book.</p><blockquote dir=”ltr” style=”MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px”><p dir=”ltr” style=”MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px”>What this sordid, 286-page mish-mash really is is a biography. But the author has eschewed that term to rationalize an inconvenient truth: He doesn’t have the journalistic goods to back up his content.</p></blockquote><p dir=”ltr” style=”MARGIN-RIGHT: […]

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NPR: National <I>Pastime</i> Radio?

Industry/Literary Analysis

To celebrate the beginning of the new season, several shows on National Public Radio have included segments on baseball books. Dave Winfield, author of Dropping the Ball, Gary Sheffield (Inside Power), and Cait Murphy (Crazy ’08), were all recent guests on the Leonard Lopate Show. (Also on the Winfield program: an interview with Jessica Rosner […]

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The Nostalgic Charm of <i>Baseball Digest</i>

<p><em>The Best of Baseball Digest</em>, Edited by John Kuenster (Ivan R. Dee, 2006)</p> <p></p><i.baseball></i.baseball><p><em><a href=”https://www.centurysports.net/baseball/”>Baseball Digest</a></em> has been a staple since 1942. Each month, stories from around the country have found their way into the compact publication.<a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=425,height=594,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/bbdigest.jpg”><img title=”Bbdigest” height=”209″ alt=”Bbdigest” src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/bbdigest.jpg” width=”150″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px […]

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7 revisited

Reviews from other sources

<p>Richard Sandomir, sports media columnist for <em>The New York Times, </em><a href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/05/sports/baseball/05mantle.html”>opines on Peter Golenbock’s new "salacious" novel on Mickey Mantle</a> which includes sexually explicit descrpoiotns of his brief fling with Marilyn Monroe.</p> <p>"What is it about Mantle that makes him fascinating enough to have become <a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=190,height=240,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/05mantle_1_190.jpg”><img title=”05mantle_1_190″ height=”189″ […]

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The book that launched the cliche

Review by Ron Kaplan

<p><em>Why Time Begins on Opening Day</em> by Thomas Boswell (Doubleday, 1984)<a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=100,height=153,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/boswell.jpg”><img title=”Boswell” height=”229″ alt=”Boswell” src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/boswell.jpg” width=”150″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px” /></a> </p> <p>This was the book that started it all for me (even though it was not the author’s first release). When I read Boswell’s […]

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Extra, Extra. Read all about it: NL Edition

<p>See the <a href=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/2007/04/extra_extra_rea.html”>American League post</a> for an introduction to preview sections. Also note that individual papers might have removed their preview supplements/sections by the time you read this, especially now that the season has started.</p> <p><strong>National League East</strong></p> <ul><li><strong>Atlanta</strong>: Not much from the <a href=”https://www.ajc.com/braves/content/sports/braves/index.html#run”>Journal-Constitution</a>.</li> <li><strong>Florida (Miami)</strong>: <a href=”http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/baseball/”>A piece on Bonds’ legacy</a> in […]

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The five best books?

Reviews from other sources

<p>Former MLB commissioner Fay Vincent contributed <a href=”http://www.opinionjournal.com/weekend/fivebest/?id=110009881″>this editorial</a> to the <em>Wall Street Journal</em>, in which he gives his considered opinion on the five best books on the national pastime. They include:</p> <ul><li><em>Men at Work</em>, by George F. Will (1990)</li> <li><em>Eight Men Out</em>, by Eliot Asinof (1963)</li> <li><em>High Pockets</em>, by John R. Tunis (1948)</li> <li><em>The […]

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Extra, Extra. Read all about it: AL Edition

<p>Prior to opening day, many major market papers print a special preview of the season. This might be in the form of a separate section or just a few pages and often picks a specific theme, such as the influx of international players or the improvement in equipment, etc. Some nespapers with lower budgets take […]

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