Author Profile: Art Shamsky

Author profile/interview by Ron Kaplan

Mets favorite remembers the victories, and tensions, of a turbulent era by Ron Kaplan (This article appeared in the New Jersey Jewish News, Nov. 18, 2004) Art Shamsky may not have been a Hall of Famer like Sandy Koufax, but for Jewish fans of the New York Mets during their “amazin’” World Championship season in […]

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Review: Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game

Review by Ron Kaplan

Originally appeared in Elysian Fields Quarterly, 2003. “One of the reasons baseball fans remain so steadfast in their devotion to the game is a sense of tradition. During interminable rain delays and constant pitching changes, broadcasters often wax nostalgic about constancy: for over a hundred years there have been nine men on the field, bases […]

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Review: The Only Game in Town: Baseball Stars of the 1930s and 1940s Talk About the Game They Loved

Review by Ron Kaplan

As former professional athletes move deeper and deeper into senior citizen status, it becomes increasingly interesting, akin to listening to our grandparents discuss what life was like “in the day.” Baseball has always “enjoyed” a reputation that is almost a necessity, given its relatively slow pace. There is plenty of time to think, to talk. […]

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Review:The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth

Review by Ron Kaplan

While Barry Bonds and his home-run hitting brethren have followed the “better living through science” route to fame, Babe Ruth did things the old-fashioned way: booze, babes and BAM! It seems every time a contemporary baseballist threatens to bypass Ruth’s 714 home runs, someone comes out with a new book in an attempt to a) […]

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Review — Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal

Review by Ron Kaplan

<p><span face=”Verdana”><em><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/shadows.jpg”><img title=”Shadows” height=”150″ alt=”Shadows” src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/shadows.jpg” width=”150″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px” /></a> Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal</em>, </span><span face=”Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif”>by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams</span></p> <p><span face=”Verdana”>&quot;Shortly after Jose Canseco’s tell-all Juiced came out in 2005, with allegations […]

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Review — Baseball Roundup, Spring '06

Review by Ron Kaplan

<p>Spring 2006 Roundup Review on Bookreproter.com, including:<a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=336,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/believe.jpg”><img title=”Believe” height=”223″ alt=”Believe” src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/believe.jpg” width=”150″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px” /></a> </p> <ul><li><em>The Baseball Uncyclopedia</em> </li> <li><em>The Mind of Bill James: How a Complete Outsider Changed Baseball</em> </li> <li><em>Call the Yankees My Daddy: Reflections on Baseball, Race, and Family</em> […]

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Review — Feeding the Monster: How Money, Smarts, and Nerve Took a Team to the Top

Review by Ron Kaplan

<p>Since Michael Lewis’s <em>Moneyball</em> — the behind-the-scenes story of how general <a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=458,height=700,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/11590329.jpg”><img title=”11590329″ height=”152″ alt=”11590329″ src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/11590329.jpg” width=”100″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 5px 5px 0px” /></a> manager Billy Beane assembled the Oakland Athletics — hit the bookstores in 2003, several authors have attempted to copy the behind-the-scenes formula.</p> <p><a […]

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Review — Baseball and the American Dream: Race, Class, Gender and the National Pastime

Review by Ron Kaplan

<p></p> <p>Appeared in ForeWord Magazine, July/August 2001</p> <p><a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=150,height=223,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/65607638.jpg”><img title=”65607638″ height=”148″ alt=”65607638″ src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/65607638.jpg” width=”100″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 5px 5px 0px” /></a> &quot;In his preface to <em>Baseball and the American Dream: Race, Class, Gender and the National Pastime</em>, editor Robert Elias notes that baseball ‘offers a common denominator that […]

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Review — Baseball Forever: Reflections on 60 Years in the Game

Review by Ron Kaplan

<p>Appeared in <em>ForeWord Magazine</em>, May/June 2004<a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=321,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/baseballforever.jpg”><img title=”Baseballforever” height=”155″ alt=”Baseballforever” src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/baseballforever.jpg” width=”100″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px” /></a></p> <p>&quot;Ralph Kiner was smart enough to realize early on that a career in sports is short and uncertain. Nevertheless, he happily contradicts that notion as he reminisces in this […]

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Review — Baseball Roundup, Fall '05

Review by Ron Kaplan

<p>Brief reviews from Bookreporter.com including:</p> <ul><li><em>Praying for Gil Hodges</em>, by Thomas Oliphant </li> <li><em>Brooklyn Remembered</em>, by Maury Allen </li> <li><em>You Never Forget Your First</em> </li> <li><em>Last Time Out</em></li></ul> <p><a href=”http://www.bookreporter.com/features/051021-baseball.asp”>Read the whole review from Bookreporter.com</a>.</p>

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Review — Burying the Black Sox

Review by Ron Kaplan

<p>Appeared in <em>ForeWord Magazine, </em>May/June 2006<a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=150,height=225,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/buryingtheblacksoxbookcover.jpg”><img title=”Buryingtheblacksoxbookcover” height=”150″ alt=”Buryingtheblacksoxbookcover” src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/buryingtheblacksoxbookcover.jpg” width=”100″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px” /></a> <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/burying.jpg”></a></p> <p>“The scandal … was not ‘eight men out’ for throwing the series,” writes the author in his new take on the most […]

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Review — Ed Delehanty in the Emerald Age of Baseball

Review by Ron Kaplan

Appeared in ForeWord Magazine, May/June 2004 “One of the charming qualities about baseball is that a fan from a hundred years ago would easily recognize the modern game. Little has changed: there are still four bases, nine innings, and three strikes, you’re out. “Ed Delehanty is also recognizable — a stereotypical player who could have […]

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Review — Few and Chosen: Defining Yankee Greatness Across the Eras

Review by Ron Kaplan

<p><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/fewchosen.jpg”><img title=”Fewchosen” height=”100″ alt=”Fewchosen” src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/fewchosen.jpg” width=”100″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px” /></a> </p> <p>Appeared in <em>ForeWord Magazine, </em>January/February 2002</p> <p>&quot;Next to the Marines, the New York Yankees are the epitome of ‘the few and the proud.’ Throughout their major league existence–more precisely since they &quot;stole&quot; Babe […]

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Review — Fantasyland: A Season on Baseball's Lunatic Fringe

Review by Ron Kaplan

<p>&quot;<a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=329,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/fntasyland.jpg”><img title=”Fntasyland” height=”151″ alt=”Fntasyland” src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/fntasyland.jpg” width=”100″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px” /></a>Fantasy baseball was developed more than 20 years ago by a group of bored guys in the publishing field who decided they could do a better job of putting a winning team together than the […]

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Author Profile: Dave Hollander

Author profile/interview by Ron Kaplan

<h3 class=”entry-header”><a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=160,height=241,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/hollanderheadshot_1.jpg”><img title=”Hollanderheadshot_1″ height=”150″ alt=”Hollanderheadshot_1″ src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/hollanderheadshot_1.jpg” width=”100″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 5px 5px 0px” /></a> </h3> <div class=”entry-content”><div class=”entry-body”><p></p> <div style=”CLEAR: both”></div><strong>Rachmones for the underdog:<br />NJ author highlights athletes with scars, not stars, in new book</strong><br /><br />Despite the title of his new book, <em>52 Weeks: Interviews with […]

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Author interview: Tom Oliphant

Author profile/interview by Ron Kaplan

<p>I met <a href=”http://www.bookreporter.com/authors/au-oliphant-thomas.asp”><span style=”color: #3f848a;”>Tom Oliphant </span></a>during at a discussion of his book, <em>Praying for Gil <a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=170,height=144,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/oliphant_1.jpg”><img title=”Oliphant_1″ height=”84″ alt=”Oliphant_1″ src=”http://baseballbookshelf.mlblogs.com/my_weblog/images/oliphant_1.jpg” width=”100″ border=”0″ style=”FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px” /></a> <a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=170,height=144,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/oliphant.jpg”></a><a onclick=”window.open(this.href, ‘_blank’, ‘width=358,height=475,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/mr_met.jpg”></a>Hodges</em>, held at the Yogi […]

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