Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
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♦ The Summer 2012 issue of Jewish Currents features a review by Cynthia Werthamer of Pitching in the Promised Land: A Story of the First and Only Season in the Israel Baseball League, by former IBL hurler Aaron Pribble. Upshot: “While Pribble’s book could do with less foreshadowing…, his retelling of the ups and downs […]
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This week’s podcast is a little different. Ari Alexenberg is no author (although as a pitcher I’m sure his “authored” some great games over his long amateur career). Rather he is the subject of Coming Home, a documentary currently under production. The film tells the story of his participation in the only season of the […]
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A Story of the First and Only Season in the Israel Baseball League, by Aaron Pribble. University of Nebraska Press, 2011. 280 pages, $24.95 For one brief shining moment, it was known as… Well, depending on who you ask, the Israel Baseball League was either a miracle, a disgrace, an opportunity, or a pleasant diversion. […]
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Always happy when the mail carrier delivers a package (as long as it’s not ticking). Recently received Aaron Pribble’s Pitching in the Promised Land: A Story of the First and Only Season in the Israel Baseball League, his memoir about participating the Israel Baseball League, which lasted just one season (2007). Pribble pitched for the […]
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By the way, it’s still winter so why aren’t we hearing snow-themed songs anymore? “Winter Wonderland” and “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” among others, are not “holiday” songs, per se, so they’d still be valid. Just sayin’. Thought I saw my first “annual” at the bookstore last week, but it was a fantasy publication, so it […]
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Art Shamsky, a favorite of Jewish baseball fans everywhere, turns 69 today. I ran into Shamsky last Sunday at the memorial service for Maury Allen. Still looking good and hoping for a resurrection of professional baseball in Israel; he was manager of the Modi’in Miracle in 2007, the only season for the Israel Baseball League. […]
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The MLB Network will present Holy Land Hardball, the documentary about the lone season of the Israel Baseball League, on Sunday, Jan. 10 at 10 p.m.
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Marty Appel was kind enough to send me a copy of the Official 2007 Yearbook of the Israel Baseball League. Appel, who used to handle PR for the Yankees back in the 1970s, has his finger in just about every Jewish/sports pie, including the IBL, the Jewish Major Leaguer Card set, and the Maccabi Haifa […]
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For all the best intentions, hopes, and excitement, the Israel Baseball League lasted just one season. Tepid responses by the media and native-born population, poor playing conditions, and questionable business practices all led to the league’s downfall after its 2007 debut. Little of that gloom, however, is evidenced in Holy Land Hardball, a documentary about […]
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An article from the New England-based Seacoastonline.com reports that a film about Ari Alexenberg, a 45-year-old Boston man who played in the first (and perhaps only) season of the Israel Baseball League last year, is in the works. When Steve Sanger, of Portsmouth-based Sanger Communications, heard of Alexenberg’s story, he knew he had to meet […]
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Last week, in an entry about a new documentary chronicling inaugural season of the Israel Baseball League, I said there would not be a season two. Seems that was a bit premature. If I had waited just a few hours, I would have added that the league will indeed have a curtain call. But then […]
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Yes, Robin, there was hardball in the Holy Land last year, with the inaugural season of the Israel Baseball League. Six teams played during the summer of ’07; three of which were led by former Major Leaguers Art Shamsky, Ken Holztman, and Ron Blomger, who led his team to the championship. Unfortunately, and for a […]
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is available on Amazon.com,
In my most recent "day job," I was the sports and features editor for a weekly New Jersey newspaper, where I hosted another blog. Busy, busy, busy.
I did a profile piece on the award-winning cartoonist Arnold Roth and he was nice enough to "immortalize" me.
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
