Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
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NEW STUFF: I have been posting these things long enough now that a few have commented that the introductory section isn’t necessary anymore. But I’m leaving it in because, to paraphrase Joe DiMaggio when asked why he played so hard all the time, there may be people who’ve never read the best-seller entries before. So… […]
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Kind of weird: it’s almost June and still no baseball book reviews in The New York Times? I know space is precious on those pages, but still. There are any number of worthy candidates. Get on it, Times. In the meantime: From the Rockford, Ill., Rock River Times, this piece on Steven K. Wagner’s Perfect: The […]
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Since I posted the first of these last Thursday, which is known on social media as a time of reflection, I thought to make it a regular thing under this rubric. As a reminder, I highly recommend Pocket as a way to hold onto links you come that you want to keep. Unlike bookmarks, Pocket […]
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I highly recommend Pocket as a way to hold onto links you come that you want to keep. Unlike bookmarks, Pocket keeps the entire page and makes it relative easy for you to find stuff you “pocketed.” I have keepers going back six years — more than 5,000 links — and I’ve decided it’s time […]
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Bob, a distant relative of my wife, passed away recently. He lived in Hoboken with his wife, who died several years ago. I didn’t know him well. He was a very quiet fellow who kept to himself during the biennial family reunions. I can’t even recall his last name on my own. It turns out […]
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The baseball card scion died yesterday at the age of 91. If you were a red-blooded American boy, you probably collected some form of “sports cards” as a kid. Most likely, they were the offspring of Berger, who created Topps back in the early 1950s. Although trading cards have been around for more than 100 […]
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I am signed up for a bunch of daily Google alerts which inform me about various sports topics, including baseball stuff and Jewish-related items for my other blog. Sometimes I even read them. After the death last week of baseball lifer Don Zimmer, I received a GA for a story appearing on the very serious-yet-entertaining […]
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From the Associated Press: Advanced Stats Find Way Onto Baseball Cards The advanced-stats movement is making headway in another area: baseball cards. Topps added WAR (wins above replacement) to its cards last year in a sign that the oft-debated metric is becoming more accepted by the mainstream. As a company that’s been making baseball cards […]
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Looking over the overlooked in baseball books stuff. In honor of Mothers’ Day, this piece by David Seideman in Forbes urges you to “Forgive Your Mom For Throwing Out Your Baseball Cards.” Is it my imagination or are Mookie Wilson and Bill Buckner turning into Ralph Branca and Bobby Thomson? MLB.com described Mookie’s new memoir […]
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(As opposed to this; you can stop watching at about the one minute mark.) What else can you say about the new set of Jewish Major Leaguers cards? The updated edition, the first since the 2010 “Deck of the Decade,” features all-new photography for the players who appeared during the 2010-13 seasons (including a clean-shaven […]
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Sure, we all know how rare the Honus Wagner and Mickey Mantle rookie cards are. And how valuable if they’re in pristine condition. How many times have we denied ourselves the pleasure of just handling the cardboard, worried about bending the corners or leaving finger prints? Back in the seventh grade, I did a project […]
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Brought to you by the folks at Mental Floss, the magazine that gave me my first national exposure and cover story (right). Have these World Series matchups ever happened? (Not to brag but I aced it.) The Baseball Card Brand Quiz (a lot tougher; ugh, I only scored 64%, which was slightly higher than the […]
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Josh Levin of Slate’s Hang Up and Listen podcast posted this educational piece on “The Worst Baseball Card of All Time.” Spoiler alert: It’s Bob Hamlin in the 1996 Pinnacle Foil set (card no. 289). Levin’s essay makes some very good arguments and offers a mini-history lesson on the industry, full of links to examples […]
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Speaking about the topic some more, the Sabermetric Research blog posted these pieces about pitchers and hitters who, for whatever reason, missed out on having a baseball card printed. Now I’m not marketing expert, but I would have to imagine there would be some interest by hard-core collectors to have such players represented. As a […]
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Tom Zappala & Ellen Zappala, who previously released The T206 Collection: The Players & Their Stories, a wonderful coffee-table edition about the the Holy Grail of baseball card sets, have done it again with their forthcoming book, The Cracker Jack Collection: Baseball’s Prized Players. The new book, scheduled for an August 1 release, follows the […]
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Long gone are the days when Topps would post tiny cartoons talking about a player’s unique skill, accomplishment or hobby. But fear not; as long as there are Jumbotrons, we’ll still be able to enjoy these gems.
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BaseballCardInvestment.comt posted this piece on “Sandy Koufax Baseball Cards: A Short but Solid List.” I’m guessing it applies to at least a few of you out there.
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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
Throwback Thursday (aka massive links dump, continued)
June 11, 2015
Since I posted the first of these on a Thursday, which is known on social media as a time of reflection, I thought to make it a regular thing under this rubric. These are kind of fun; it’s like a box of chocolates — you never know what you’re gonna get. (Actually, I never understood […]
Tagged as: Baseball Cards, baseball statistics, Japanese baseball, John Thorn, New York Yankees, Rob Fleder, women's baseball
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