Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
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One of the “problems” working on my book is that I haven’t had as much time to read other books. Several authors have been kind enough to send me their work and I apologize for be so slow to get to them and hope to remedy that in the near future. At the moment, I’m […]
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Forbes reported that there’s going to a whole lot of Splendid Splinter items coming up for auction. The event will take place on Saturday, April 28, at Fenway (where else?) under the auspices of Hunt Auctions., Inc. Among the effects: Lots 1-31 Contemporary pieces including autographed materials. Lots 32-59 Early career and Red Sox related. […]
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There was an awful lot of bizzaro “news” following the death of baseball legend Ted Williams in 2002. For those of you unfamiliar with the story, Williams’ son, Ted Jr., who, according to many accounts, was a no-account person with no discernible skills of his own who pushed his ailing dad hard in the memorabilia […]
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Actually, this should have preceded the earlier piece. WARNING: Family vacation photos ahead! Spent a pleasant few days visiting Boston and the environs earlier this month. Among the highlights: On Friday, Aug. 5, we took in the Yankees-Red Sox game. It was one of the few nice days, weather-wise, for the trip, so we lucked […]
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On this date: In 1941 at the All-Star Game at Briggs Stadium, Ted Williams, hitting .405 at the break, homers off Chicago Cubs P Claude Passeau with two out and two on in the ninth inning to give the American League a dramatic 7 – 5 victory. (Relevant title: The Midsummer Classic: The Complete History […]
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by Jerome Charyn. Yale University Press, 2011. * * * This year marks the 70th anniversary of one of those sports records still considered to be unbreakable: Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. While most of the books over the years — especially those written in a long-ago time, when athletes were always heroic rather than […]
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Because you can keep a page-a-day calendar on your bookshelf… Sports Illustrated columnist Joe Posnanski riffs his 2011 SI Calendar as a way of introducing some baseball history. As 2011 marks the 70th (!) anniversary of Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, Posnanski also notes the publication of Kostya Kennedy’s upcoming 56: Joe DiMaggio and the […]
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As we observe Veterans Day, I just wanted to put give a shout out to the men and women who have sacrificed in the service of their country. A sampling of the literature on the subject: Ted Williams at War An American Journey: My Life on the Field, in the Air, and on the Air, […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, Nov. 5 at Noon. Title Rank General The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy 1 Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back, by Josh Hamilton and Tim Keown 2 Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, […]
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Can’t believe the season is almost over. The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of 2 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 1. Title Rank General Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu: John Updike on Ted Williams, by John Updike 1 The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Jane Leavy 2 Moneyball: […]
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Playing a little catch-up here: Aug. 30 Hideo Nomo, 42: Nomo: The Tornado Who Took America by Storm, by Edmon Rodman Frank Robinson, 75: Robinson has published a couple of his own titles, including My Life Is Baseball (1975), Frank: The First Year (1976), and Extra Innings (1988). Other titles about Robinson include Russ Schneider’s […]
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Come on, you know you do it. Everybody does it… The first time I “discovered” myself was in an airport in Milwaukee, coming back, appropriately enough, from a SABR convention. In the time since, when I’ve Googled myself to see where mention of The Bookshelf might have appeared. I’ve discovered I share the name with […]
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Come on, you know you do it. Everybody does it… The first time I “discovered” myself was in an airport in Milwaukee, coming back, appropriately enough, from a SABR convention. In the time since, when I’ve Googled myself to see where mention of The Bookshelf might have appeared. I’ve discovered I share the name with […]
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Apropos to the previous entry, we might have a Rob Neyer moment here. In the snippet, Redford claims to have been in New York where he attended a Yankees-Red Sox game. He mentions that Maris and Mantle were in the lineup, but not Williams. He doesn’t give a date, but it had to have been […]
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We won’t be done with the All-Star break until Thursday, so if your baseball Jones gets too strong, watch HBO’s documentary about the Splendid Splinter in Ted Williams: There Goes the Greatest Hitter That Ever Lived. The special premiers Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. EST. Here’s a review from Newsday. You can read Williams’ ESPN obituary […]
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I never had a brother, so I don’t know what it’s like to be in someone’s shadow. Imagine Dom DiMaggio. He had a wonderful 11-year career with the Boston Red Sox, finishing with a .298 career batting average and a seven-time all-star. But there was Joe, always in the spotlight. Dom passed away yesterday at […]
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I went looking online to see if I could find an audio rendition of Updike’s essay, “Hub fans bid Kid adieu.” I know it was recorded during a Symphony Special performance of stories and poems about the national pastime (the recording was released in 2006), but wouldn’t you know it: the two portions of the […]
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John Updike, one of the great writers of the 20th century, passed away yesterday at the age of 76. Although he was known primarily for his novels, particularly his series of “Rabbit” books, Updike found the time to write one of the most famous (baseball) essays of all time. “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu,” about […]
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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
Once in a lifetime: Ted Williams’ perfect coda
September 27, 2010
A handful of players have been fortunate enough to enjoy a storybook ending to their career: ending with a bang. None have done it with as much mystique as Ted Williams. The Splendid Splinter played his last major league game against the Baltimore Orioles on September 28, 1960. A dreary affair, with nothing on the […]
Tagged as: John Updike, Ted Williams
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