Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf — If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here — Page 335

Book reviews begin on Opening Day… or thereabouts

Reviews from other sources

(This one got a little lost in the shuffle) With the start of the season imminent, newspapers and magazines (as well as a few websites and blogs) select, by dint of their choices, what they consider the most prestigious baseball titles of the year. As I come across such selections, I’ll be posting apporopriate excerpts […]

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Baseball authors on the radio

Industry/Literary Analysis

According to a March 30 post on Publisher’s Weekly.com: In honor of baseball’s opening day this Sunday (April 1), The Bob Edwards Show re-airs Bob’s conversation with Pulitzer winner David Maraniss about Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero, just out in paperback. PW’s starred review considered it a “respectful and dispassionate account. […]

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Geoffrey C. Ward, non-baseball fan?

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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Adam Greenberg profiled in NY Times Magazine

Bits and Pieces

<p>Is <a href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/magazine/25baseball.t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=magazine”>Adam Greenberg the new Moonlight Graham</a>? The unlucky young man was beaned in his first plate appearance for the Chicago Cubs and hasn’t been back to the majors since. At least he has a plate appearance. His story appeared in the <em>NY Times Sunday Magazine</em> on March 25. </p>

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Terry McDonell, SI editor profile

Industry/Literary Analysis

<p>The March 26 issue of <em>Sports Business Journal</em> features a <a href=”http://sportsbusinessjournal.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article.main&articleId=54786″>profile of Terry McDonell</a>, editor of Sports Illustrated Group.</p> <p>McDonell says his best decision was joining the SI family:<a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=300,height=391,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/indians0vj.jpg”><img title=”Indians0vj” height=”130″ alt=”Indians0vj” src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/indians0vj.jpg” width=”100″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px” /></a> </p><blockquote dir=”ltr” style=”MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px”><p dir=”ltr” […]

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Julio Franco, bibliophile

Bits and Pieces

<p><a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=90,height=135,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/franco.jpg”><img title=”Franco” height=”180″ alt=”Franco” src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/franco.jpg” width=”120″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px” /></a>"I also will read a lot on the computer and a lot of baseball books. I like to read about other players to see how they think and what they went through."</p> <p align=”right”><em>48-year-old Julio […]

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SABR announces Seymour Award winner

Industry/Literary Analysis

<p class=”MsoNormal”><span style=”FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial”><strong>From SABR.org</strong></span></p> <p class=”MsoNormal”><span style=”FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Arial”>Cleveland, Ohio – The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is happy to announce that the multi-volume <strong><em>Game of Inches: The Stories Behind the Innovations That Shaped Baseball </em></strong>(Ivan R. Dee) by <strong>Peter Morris </strong>was selected to receive this […]

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Bits and Pieces

Industry/Literary Analysis

<p>A review of <a href=”http://washingtontimes.com/sports/20070318-020716-2326r.htm”><em>Crazy ’08</em> from the </a><em><a href=”http://washingtontimes.com/sports/20070318-020716-2326r.htm”>Washington Times</a>. <a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=502,height=759,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/crazy08.jpg”><img title=”Crazy08″ height=”226″ alt=”Crazy08″ src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/crazy08.jpg” width=”150″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px” /></a></em></p> <p>Sometimes I wonder who reads books like this, like Mark Lamster’s <em><a href=”http://marklamster.com/”>Spalding’s World Tour</a> –</em> titles that consider the infancy of the […]

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Ballplayers as authors

Industry/Literary Analysis

<p>The March 19 issue of <em>Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal </em>features a story on how "<a href=”http://sportsbusinessjournal.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article.main&articleId=54253″>Athletes hope books will inspire children</a>." Titles include Alex Rodriguez’s <em>Out of the Ballpark</em>, David Eckstein’s <em>Have Heart</em>, and Eric Gange’s <em>Breaking Barriers.</em></p> <p>Rodriguez writes about his early failures as a little leaguer and how perserverance made him […]

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Author profile: Roger Angell

Author Profile / interview

<p>I’ve always admired the work of Roger Angell. Baseball fans look forward to his semi-annual contributions to the <em>New Yorker. <a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=184,height=235,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/angell.jpg”><img title=”Angell” height=”191″ alt=”Angell” src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/angell.jpg” width=”150″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px” /></a></em></p> <p>I came across these two interesting videos featuring legendary baseball writer Roger Angell’s appearance […]

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Bits and Pieces

Industry/Literary Analysis

<p>A press release for <a href=”http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-20-2007/0004549687&EDATE=”>Cecilia Tan’s new book on the Yankees</a>, which caims to be <a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=500,height=500,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/broadside_1.jpg”><img title=”Broadside_1″ height=”150″ alt=”Broadside_1″ src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/broadside_1.jpg” width=”150″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px” /></a>"an <a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=500,height=500,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/broadside.jpg”></a>informative and in-depth guide to the upcoming season and with 112 pages […]

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Peter Golenbock interview

Reviews from other sources

<p>Bob Andelman, aka Mr. Media, posted this in-depth <a href=”http://www.mrmedia.com/2007/03/fridays-with-mr-media-peter-golenbock7.html”>interview with Peter Golenbock, author of 7</a>, the already-controversial-though-not-yet-released novel about Mickey Mantle.</p> <p>A veteran of such notable baseball titles as <em>Dynasty; The Bronx Zoo</em>, which he wrote with Sparky Lyle; <em>Balls</em>, (Craig Nettles); <em>Guidry</em> (Ron Guidry); <em>Number One (</em>Billy Martin); and <em>Wild, High, and Tight</em>, […]

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A St. Patrick’s Day Celebration

Review by Ron Kaplan

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, here are some items that consider the contributions of the Irish in the establishment of the national pastime. Ed Delehanty in the Emerald Age of Baseball, by Jerrold Casway (University of Notre Dame Press, 2004) One of the charming qualities about baseball is that a fan from a hundred […]

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RIP, Bowie Kuhn

<p><a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=350,height=277,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/kuhn_williams_nixon_top.jpg”><img title=”Kuhn_williams_nixon_top” height=”118″ alt=”Kuhn_williams_nixon_top” src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/kuhn_williams_nixon_top.jpg” width=”149″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px” /></a><a href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/16/sports/baseball/16kuhn.html”> Bowie Kuhn</a> passed away yesterday at the age of 80. For some reason, he makes me think of Richard Nixon. Probably because he held office at the same time as the President and […]

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Bits and Pieces

Bits and Pieces

<p>Denny McClain, one of baseball’s favorite convicted felons, is scheduled to be <a href=”http://www.murfreesboropost.com/news.php?viewStory=3046″>keynote speaker</a> at Middle Tennessee State University’s  annual Conference on Baseball in Literature and Culture on March 30. <a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=240,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/mclain.jpg”></a></p> <p>McClain, the last pitcher to win 30 games, has just released his autobiography, <em>I Told You I […]

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Random House offer's audio clips

Industry/Literary Analysis

Random House just launched a new service that allows shoppers to listen to clips from audio books. Presently, there are three baseball titles. Click on the graphic to play the clip. Emperors and idiots, written by Mike Vacarro, read by Richmond Hoxie Moneyball, written and read by Michael Lewis Coach, written and read by Michael […]

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Baseball across the seas

Baseballinternational.com has a separate link for titles about baseball in far away lands. While by no means complete — most of the books are less than five years old — there are a nice bunch of volumes about the game as played in Japan and Asia, Italy, Australia, Cuba and Latin America, and the Caribbean. […]

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Children's titles

Reviews from other sources

As a rule, I don’t critique kids’ books. I just find it too difficult to write more words in a review than are contained in the book itself (especially for the 4 to 8-year-old crowd), and writing about illustrations will only go so far. So here’s a roundup of five children’s titles from the Ocean […]

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Bits and Pieces

Two items for your consideration: 108mag This new publication (they launched in the summer of 2006) “celebrates the contribution of baseball to American history, culture, and community.” It has a fairly impressive cast of contributors, including John Thorn, author and editor of such works as Total Baseball, Treasues of the Baseball Hall of Fame, The […]

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Who says kids don't learn anything in college?

Reviews from other sources

That’s one of the nice things about baseball: it’s sense of history can reach out to all age groups. This set of four capsule reviews by a student at Swarthmore includes titles — Lardner on Baseball and The Bad Guys Won — that are obviously out of his contemporary memory.

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