Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
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I was surprised when I saw the invitation from the Baseball Hall of Fame to attend their press conference introducing Mike Piazza and Ken Griffey Jr. as their newest members-elect. By my way of thinking, the ranking goes something like this: The MLB Network ESPN Sports Illustrated New York Times Wire services TV Networks Local […]
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Piazza published a memoir, Long Shot (with Lonnie Wheeler), in 2013, but I wonder if there will be something rushed out to commemorate the honor. Same for Junior, although there really hasn’t been an “adult” book on him.
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First of all, congratulations to Ken W. of Charlotte, NC, winner of last week’s book, You Gotta Have Balls, by Brandon Steiner. Thank you all for your comments. This week’s offering is the paperback edition of Long Shot, by Mike Piazza and Lonnie Wheeler. Here’s my review of the book, which appeared on Bookreporter.com. A […]
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The New York Times runs this review of Mike Piazza’s Long Shot. Given that the book was released almost two months ago and they’re just reviewing it now, I won’t give up the hopes that the Times will do something with 501. The review is more of a “what the book’s about” piece than whether […]
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It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, but congratulations to Charles P. of Long Island City, winner of the randomly selected, infrequent book giveaway selection, The Might Have Been: A Novel by Joseph Schuster. Next up — and in a quicker fashion, I promise — Mike Piazza’s Long Shot.
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By Mike Piazza with Lonnie Wheeler, Simon and Schuster, 2013. The review appears on Bookreporter.com this week. Here it is for your convenience: If not for a favor to Los Angeles Dodger manager (and family friend) Tommy Lasorda, Mike Piazza would never have been selected in the 1988 baseball draft. As it was, Piazza was […]
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James Bailey posted this one about Mike Piazza’s Long Shot. Upshot: “I was neutral on him when I began and emerged with a somewhat negative impression. That’s probably not what he was looking for. Your mileage will likely vary depending on how closely you followed his career.” Bill Jordan over at Baseball Reflections did this […]
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Just finished reading Mike Piazza’s Long Shot for a review that will appear Friday on Bookreporter.com. The quick react: is it great? No. Certainly nothing like R.A Dickey’s emotionally charged Wherever I Wind Up. Piazza grew up in an affluent environment, which seems to engender some ill will of its own, silver spoon and all […]
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One wonders why Simon & Schuster held back the release of Mike Pizza’s new memoir, Long Shot. From Saturday’s NY Times article, written by David Waldstein: “rumors began to circulate about why the release…was being pushed back to February, a month after the voting would be concluded and the final results tabulated. Would his memoir […]
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Or “Methinks he doth protest too much.” I feel sorry for a lot of today’s celebrities, especially athletes. After years of (self?) denial, Lance Armstrong admitted he used performance enhancing drugs. Ballplayer after ballplayer swears on a stack of bibles that he’s clean, only to have the evidence turn out to prove him “misstating.” The […]
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They’ve been talking about a Mike Piazza memoir for a few years now. Looks like the time is almost at hand for its release by Simon & Schuster. But exactly when is still up in the air. Pizza promised a “tell-all,” but would that include material about suspected performance enhancing drug usage? According to Chass’ […]
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Another in a series of futile attempts to catch up. Because you can keep minutiae on your bookshelf, here’s a new community baseball site that looks like it’s going to be fun: Eephusleague.com.It has a cool design and icons that take the visitor to a host of categories, including uniforms, rules, articles, photos, scorekeeping, etc. […]
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Use PED, of course. That’s one of the topics of Murray Chass’s Aug. 16 column, in he he ponders the advisability of a Mike Piazza auto-bio. I quote, at length: Several months ago I heard that Piazza may be doing a book. The publisher, Simon & Schuster, I was told, had signed a contract for […]
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In today’s NY Times, Joshua Robinson has a little piece, “Piazza Leaves Quickly, and Quietly, After Ceremony.” He writes about the ceremonial first pitch battery of Tom Seaver and the former Mets catcher. While Tom Terrific hung out afterwards to shmooze, Piazza, meanwhile, was nowhere to be seen. Escorted by security, he went from the […]
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Publishers Weekly announced yesterday that Simon and Schuster would be publishing Mike Piazza’s autobiography. Didn’t take long for sportswriters and pundits to weigh in on the project. The PW piece mentioned the “controversies” — Piazza’s relationship with the LA Dodgers, confrontation with Roger Clemens, hints of his sexuality — that would be a major component […]
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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
