Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
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There’s something supernatural about a review of a book that hasn’t been published yet, but it doesn’t seem to be stopping anyone from opining on Stephen King’s upcoming baseball novella, Blockade Billy. From Publishers Weekly: A quirky baseball player with a past shrouded in secrecy is the tragic hero of this macabre tale from the […]
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by Yoko Ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder (2003; Picador Translation 2009) I can’t even remember where I heard of this title but I’m glad I did. Ogawa tells a touching story about a Japanese housekeeper, her 10-year-old son, and her professional charge, a former mathematics professor with an unusual disability, which was the result of […]
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From Publishers Weekly and going with the premise that any mention of baseball qualifies: We Are Never as Beautiful as We Are Now: Stories Adam Gallari. Ampersand (SPD, dist.), $15.95 paper (150p) ISBN 978-0-9841025-3-2 Focusing on baseball fields and bars from New York to Los Angeles, promising newcomer Gallari presents nine fleeting tales of desultory […]
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By Bob Mitchell. Kensington, 2008. As a lover of the TV show Lost and sci-fi in general, I always welcome the chance to mix the genre with baseball (see, Baseball Fantastic, edited by W.P. Kinsella). So it was with a sense of joy when Bob Mitchell’s Once Upon a Fastball swerved from a regular work […]
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By Bob Mitchell. Kensington, 2008. As a lover of the TV show Lost and sci-fi in general, I always welcome the chance to mix the genre with baseball (see, Baseball Fantastic, edited by W.P. Kinsella). So it was with a sense of joy when Bob Mitchell’s Once Upon a Fastball swerved from a regular work […]
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Here’s an interesting post from TheYankeeU.com about two American pop culture icons: Baseball and the cinematic western, in this case Bernard Malamud’s classic The Natural juxtaposed with John Ford’s classic, The Searchers. Nice work, even if it does employ Jacues Barzun’s dreaded quote about baseball, a.k.a., “Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of […]
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Actually, most are not exactly new, but re-released in paper back editions. But I guess they’re all new if you haven’t read them yet (this sounds like one of those “if a tree falls in the woods…” bits). The only one that might qualify is A Game of Inches: The Stories Behind the Innovations That […]
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Baseball GB (“British perspectives on baseball”) published this review of the classic by Robert Coover. Upshot: If you love baseball and novels, a baseball novel should be the perfect way to combine the two passions; however, there’s always a fear with any sport-based work of fiction that the qualities that make up a great read […]
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I should copyright that. Actually it’s The Man With Two Arms, which sounds like a science fiction title but is really about an ambidextrous pitcher. Judging by the review from Publishers Weekly below, it seems better suited for young adults than adult adults. The book is published by Overlook and due out in February. You […]
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I don’t often read baseball fiction these days. I find them too hit-or-miss, pardon the metaphor. One problem is that authors often employ too much exposition, as if their readership knows nothing about the game. Those who do know a fair deal about how baseball is played or its history, might find this boring and […]
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Alan Gratz’s Brooklyn Nine, the story of a young Jewish boy’s love for baseball in the early 20th century, is featured on the cover of the September issue of Booklist, the publication of the American Library Association. The issue highlights a sports theme and includes a number “top 10” choices in several categories, such as […]
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by Robert B. Parker. Putnam, 2004. Robert B. Parker’s heroes epitomize the strong silent types. Like the cowboys of old, they are taciturn, unfailingly loyal and determined to pursue the causes of right in the face of superior numbers or disadvantageous circumstances. Joseph Burke is the latest in this mold. Parker, known primarily for his […]
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A version of this review originally appeared on Purebaseball.com in 2001. Summer is firmly entrenched. So is your favorite team … in last place. The time for spring training optimism is over. Face it, it’s the cellar for sure. Now what? Time to tum off the radio, shut the TV and head for the great […]
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by Jim Lehrer (Random House) Veteran newsman Jim Lehrer considers loss in his newest novel, the story of a young baseball player called upon to serve his country during World War II. Like many young men of the era, Johnny Wrigley had to put his life on hold. A promising young athlete, he is sent […]
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I may have done this one before, but I came across it in my Google alerts, so here we go. Tim Morris of the University of Texas at Arlington, has compiled this massive list: This Guide to Baseball Fiction is a combination of bibliographic checklist and evaluative critical guide to over 1,000 works of baseball […]
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gets a non-glowing review in The Washington Times. Upshot: The veteran newsman thinks he has things to say, about baseball, puppy love and the greatest generation. But the way in which he says those things are so bland and so uninteresting and so hackneyed and so cartoonish that one begins to speed through the pages, […]
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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
