Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
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They say you never have a second chance to make a first impression. Well, duh. But you may have a second chance when it comes to a book review. I often wonder about professional critics. What kind of expertise do they have in the topic they’re writing about? What was their mood when they wrote […]
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Stephen King and Stewart O’Nan recently announced a new joint venture. Shortly after the Boston Red Sox won their first Word Championship since 1918, King and O’Nan published Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season, which was basically a series of back-and-forth emails. This time it’s a fiction eBook, A […]
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* A couple of reviews on John Grisham’s Calico Joe, one yea (“Calico Joe is his first baseball themed book and it didn’t disappoint.”), one nay (“Grisham’s work lacks the meat and potatoes to satisfy this reader’s appetite for page-turning substance. It’s a slim book that perhaps would have made a much better short story […]
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MLB Reports reported on David Stinson’s Deadball: A Metaphysical Baseball Novel. Upshot: “…David Stinson accomplished his mission. I read. I learned. I experienced. I thought. I questioned the baseball past and starting looking to my baseball future. I am. Therefore baseball is the answer. The Metaphysics of Baseball. Welcome to Deadball.” The Jackson (Miss.) Clarion […]
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♦ The London Free Press (Ontario) published this piece on Calico Joe. Upshot: Calico Joe has home run power. The baseball portions, particularly the first 100 pages or so, are more delicious than a Fenway frank. But Grisham saves his heaviest hitting in the 198-page Calico Joe for the second half, where push comes to […]
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John Grisham’s Calico Joe was number one on The New York Times Bestseller list two weeks ago; now it’s number three, (It has been explained to that the list as printed in the Sunday book supplement is two weeks behind the on-line version, but I can’t say it makes much sense to me.) Needless to […]
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♦ Recently “discovered” At Home Plate, a nice little baseball site that posts the occasional review. Recent titles include Long Taters: A Baseball Biography of George “Boomer” Scott The Greatest Minor League: A History of the Pacific Coast league, 1903-1957 Hit By Pitch: Ray Chapman, Carl Mays, and the Fatal Fastball Wherever I Wind Up: […]
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♦ Tom Hoffarth’s latest 30/30 entry: Ruling Over Monarchs, Giants & Stars: True Tales of Breaking Barriers, Umpiring Baseball Legends and Wild Adventures in the Negro Leagues. ♦ Only a Game host Bill Littlefield offered his thought’s on John Grisham’s Calico Joe (scroll down about half way). Upshot: “some of the baseball elements of Calico […]
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♦ The latest in Tom Hoffarth’s 30/30 feature: A People’s History of Baseball, by Mitchell Nathanson. Upshot: “The book jacket says Nathan writes with “passion and occasional outrage.” Sometimes it comes off as more bittnerness [sic] or misdirected anger. ♦ The Chicago-Sun Times posted this review of Grisham’s Calico Joe. Upshot: “In baseball terms, Calico […]
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The veteran legal thriller author tales a shot at the national pastime in Calico Joe, due out on April 10 from Doubleday. from Doubleday’s website: Whatever happened to Calico Joe? It began quietly enough with a pulled hamstring. The first baseman for the Cubs AAA affiliate in Wichita went down as he rounded third […]
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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
At the risk of offending some of you…
September 25, 2012 · 3 comments
In my regular search for items for the blog, I cam across a couple of review for baseball fiction that caught my eye (ouch) and made me stop. A bit of background first. A couple of weeks ago The New York Times ran a front-page review of Telegraph Avenue, Michael Chabon’s latest novel in the […]
Tagged as: Art of Fielding, baseball fiction, John Grisham, Michael Chabon, The Brothers K
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