Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
Except replace “still” with “not” and “rock and roll” with “baseball.”
60 Minutes featured a segment on the Savannah Bananas in its April 13 episode.
Jesse Cole, the man behind the (yellow) curtain, has written several books about the team and marketing, including Banana Ball: The Unbelievably True Story of the Savannah Bananas, which is once again a best-seller.
It may be fun and entertaining — and that’s fine — but it’s still not baseball…to me.
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This is really getting to be old-home month, give or take. First it was Danny Gallagher, author of several titles about the Montreal Expos. Then it was Robbie Hart, with his new documentary. Next week, Curtis Pride, the deaf ballplayer who made his Major League debut with the team in 1993, the first of six organizations in The Show and part of a 23-year professional career.
Now we have Terry Mosher, aka Aislin, a long-time popular political cartoonist for the Montreal Gazette who just happens to love baseball in general and the Expos in particular as evidenced by his recent release, Aislin’s Montreal Expos: A Cartoonists Love Affair.
I still recall fondly those times visiting my Aunt Lily in the Outremont section of the city, reading the Gazette every morning. To be honest, I didn’t pay much attention to Aislin’s political stuff but was tickled to find his occasional caricatures of the ballplayers or scenes from the park. The first big leaguer I ever saw was Mike Torrez who was doing an appearance at one of the city’s major department stores. Since he was dressed in civvies, I didn’t know who he was but they were handing out postcards of him in uniform so there you go. (My mother claimed to have seen Jackie Robinson when he played in Montreal in 1946, but who knows?)
I enjoy any book about the team for the Montreal nostalgia factor, but Mosher’s is different in that it’s much more personal, as opposed to a piece of historical non-fiction. He had his favorites but he also refuses to skimp when it comes to criticizing those who had a hand in turning the Expos into ex-‘Spos.
My major regret is that I wasn’t able to attend Expos Fest, the annual celebration of the team that brings together former players and fans (and Mosher) to relive past glories and swap stories, which ends this week. It also serves as a great fundraising event for the Montreal Children’s Hospital, to which Mosher is donating a percentage of proceeds from his book’s sales as well.
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Pete Peterson’s national public radio program, Reading Baseball, just celebrated its 400th episode! Mazel tov.
Pittsburgh pitcher Paul Skenes is included in Esquire’s “Mavericks of Sports 2025” feature.
Skenes is also featured in today’s New York Times Magazine piece, “How Analytics Marginalized Baseball’s Superstar Pitchers: Why has pro baseball made it so hard for today’s pitchers to achieve greatness?”
Clint Hurdle was recently hired by the Colorado Rockies as their new hitting coach. I’m guessing that will curtail his appearances to discuss his new book, Hurdle-isms: Wit and Wisdom from a Lifetime in Baseball. Interesting choice in the book jacket artwork. I guess more people will recognize a bat rather than a picture of the author.
I recently posted about the scourge of anti-DEI book banning as part of a more overreaching goal of purging history of anything that puts the U.S. in a poor light, including centuries of racist acts. In recognition of the annual day in his honor, Commonweal Magazine recently published “Out at Home? Trump’s book police may be coming for Jackie Robinson.”
Several new baseball documentaries are available for your amusement and education, including
I’ll be reviewing these in future entries.
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A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“).
In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast one by including a book in a category in which it should not be listed (in my opinion). For example, The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect has appeared on Amazon’s BBS list. “Why” is a good question. There might be a smattering of the national pastime in it, but not enough to make it a baseball book per se (again, IMO).
Finally, adults only here. That is, no books for younger readers (i.e., 12 and under). Also no “adult” adult books (romance/erotic fiction that features baseball as a theme although goodness knows there are a bunch of those out there).
So, with all that said…
The links under the authors’ names will take you to the Bookshelf Conversations I did with them. An asterisk denotes a book making its debut on the BBS list. And a Ω (omega) means it’s an award winner.
PRINT
Note: Amazon has changed the way they list their books. Until I find an actual ranking for e- and audio books, I will be omitting these categories. Hopefully, they’ll be restored shortly.
Meantime, nothing new to report. I mean nothing. Not one title that didn’t appear last week, although some of the rankings have shifted.
Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 2,625,195 overall in books; last time, 2,464,608. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 960,409; last time, 2,100,784.
Shameless self-promotion: if you’re looking for some good baseball reading during this down time, why not pick up a copy of 501? It’s like the dictionary; it has the other books in it, which reminds me of one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite shows.
A reminder: There’s an Excel “checklist” of the books list in 501. If you’re interested in keeping track of how many you have read or own, drop me a line.
If you have read either of my books, thanks, hope you enjoyed it, and please consider writing an Amazon review; it’s never too late.
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If you’d asked me a few years ago about my favorite teams, I definitely would have said the Mets, followed by the Montreal Expos. But now? It just might be the reverse, since I’ve been living in the past lately.
I spent many a happy summer in Montreal, where the maternal side of my family lived. My mother had moved to the U.S. after marrying my father, but her two brothers and a sister played host to our visits.
A few weeks ago, it was Danny Gallagher, author of several volumes on the Expos. The next Conversation will be with Terry Mosher, aka Aislin, a political cartoonist for the Montreal Gazette who seems happier to have drawn caricatures of hundreds of people connected with the team since 1969. And after that comes Curtis Pride, the deaf player who made his Major League debut with the Expos in 1993 (as part of a 23-year professional career) and who recently released his memoirs, I Felt the Cheers: The Remarkable Silent Life of Curtis Pride.
But Robbie Hart — whom I learned was not one of my charges when I worked at a sleep-away camp in the Laurentians, an hour’s drive from Montreal — brought back some happy (and not so happy) memories of those long-ago visits with his new project, Nos Amours: The Saga of the Montreal Expos.
His documentary about the beloved but ill-fated team reminded me of the frustration of watching the franchise going down the tubes because of conditions both internal and external. But that love remain some twenty years after the Expos relocated to Washington, DC, and the efforts of Montrealers in getting another chance in the next round of expansion are heartening.
Despite I pride myself on a basic knowledge of the team’s history, I learned a great deal during our chat. Hart countered my suggestion that a major for the Expos’ demise due to flagging attendance was because their home venue, Olympic Stadium, was not conveniently located. The next ballpark, however, will be in the heart of the city.
Fingers crossed.
And, as before, the audio-only version:
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A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes (see my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks“).
In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast one by including a book in a category in which it should not be listed (in my opinion). For example, The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect has appeared on Amazon’s BBS list. “Why” is a good question. There might be a smattering of the national pastime in it, but not enough to make it a baseball book per se (again, IMO).
Finally, adults only here. That is, no books for younger readers (i.e., 12 and under). Also no “adult” adult books (romance/erotic fiction that features baseball as a theme although goodness knows there are a bunch of those out there).
So, with all that said…
The links under the authors’ names will take you to the Bookshelf Conversations I did with them. An asterisk denotes a book making its debut on the BBS list. And a Ω (omega) means it’s an award winner.
PRINT
Note: Amazon has changed the way they list their books. Until I find an actual ranking for e- and audio books, I will be omitting these categories. Hopefully, they’ll be restored shortly.
Meantime, nothing new top report.
Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 2,464,608 overall in books; last time, 2,218,864. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 2,100,784; last time, 1,277,306.
Shameless self-promotion: if you’re looking for some good baseball reading during this down time, why not pick up a copy of 501? It’s like the dictionary; it has the other books in it, which reminds me of one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite shows.
A reminder: There’s an Excel “checklist” of the books list in 501. If you’re interested in keeping track of how many you have read or own, drop me a line.
If you have read either of my books, thanks, hope you enjoyed it, and please consider writing an Amazon review; it’s never too late.
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I’ve always enjoyed books that look at the game from an “outside” point of view. That’s why I’m drawn to those titles that look at such diverse topics as baseball and philosophy or baseball and film.
So it was kind of a natural when I discovered The Ancient Wisdom of Baseball: Lessons for Life and Homer’s Odyssey to the World Series by Christian Sheppard.
I was loathe to confess to him that I have never read the classic that’s so frequently taught in high school. I will look to rectify that in the near future.
While the chapters deal with topics found in The Odyssey, such as virtue, prudence, and courage, to name just a few, to my mind, the stories are more about his daughter, taking her to the ballpark and teaching her the game. And while I know he’s using her as an introduction to the concepts in Odyssey, they made me nostalgic for my the good old days with my own daughter. I loved having catches with her and seeing her do well on the softball diamond and then becoming the manager of her high school baseball team. So thanks for that, Christian.
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Andrew Forbes is out with a new book: Field Work: On Baseball and Making a Living. If it’s anything like his last book, it will be quite thought-provoking. Another Bookshelf Conversation is in the offing.
The New Yorker‘s “Sporting Scene” section takes up the issue of the Yankees’ new torpedo bats.
Peter Drier offers this piece about the LA Dodgers’ recent visit to the white house, the anti-DEI movement, and Jackie Robinson, a topic I have addressed in a separate entry.
From WFMZ, “‘A fascinating history’: Local author reflects on 75 years of Reading baseball stadium.” That is, Charlie Adams’ Baseball in Reading.
Kaitlyn Tiffany asks “Why Aren’t Women Allowed to Play Baseball?” in a recent issue of The Atlantic. It’s about women at Yankees fantasy camp. In 2009 I wrote a story for the New Jersey Jewish News about a program developed for observant Jewish campers, one of whom was the lone woman who attended.
They paved Reggie Jackson’s childhood home and put up a parking lot. Perhaps you can swing by there and grab some bits and pieces as a souvenir.
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UPDATE: As of earlier this afternoon, the Pirates have decided restore Clemente’s sign.
(Yiddish for “a shame.”)
I try to keep politics out of the Bookshelf (I have another blog for that: The Worried Journalist), but with all this anti-DEI BS impacting baseball, I think it’s appropriate to address the situation.
The Pittsburgh Pirates recently removed a marker honoring Robert Clemente and replaced it with an advertisement. Now maybe this has nothing to do with DEI, maybe it’s just a “business decision.” But the optics are bad.
The Los Angeles Dodgers bucked a trend by championship teams and paid (homage) a visit to the white House, to the consternation of many.
Jackie Robinson, whose courage in breaking the color line is undeniable, had the indignity of having his military contributions scrubbed by the Pentagon from its website, along with the Navajo Code Talkers and Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian Marine and one of the six men who raised the flag on Iwo Jima in the iconic photograph. Robinson’s citations have since been restored, but the fact that they were removed in the first place is just another indication of the mean-spiritedness and anti-woke dementia of the current administration.
Given recent conditions, we have to wonder what will happen next Tuesday — Jackie Robinson Day.
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I don’t check my mail often enough. If I did, I would have known that the Baseball Bookshelf made the list of FeedSpot’s top 100 baseball sites (#46, to be precise).
Muchas gracias.
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The actor who played the title role in the Dennis the Menace TV show (1959-1963), passed away yesterday at the age of 73. Here’s his obituary from The New York Times.
The baseball connection? An episode from the third season featuring none other than Sandy Koufax in “Dennis and the Dodger.”
Despite his reputation as being shy, Koufax appeared in a few TV shows. Here’s a list of his appearances via IMDB.
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What might have been.
From the New York Times obituary by Michael S. Rosenwald:
Joe DePugh, the Little League teammate of Bruce Springsteen who inspired the rocker’s hit song “Glory Days,” a rousing, bittersweet anthem to their hardscrabble childhoods in Freehold, N.J., where time passed by “in the wink of a young girl’s eye,” died on Friday in West Palm Beach, Fla. He was 75.
It never ceases to amaze me how quickly some of the notices are published. I know in the case of major celebrities, the media has these things prepped and ready to go, but all due respect to Joe DePugh, this was not a major celebrity.
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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 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
