Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf — If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here — Page 2

Baseball Best-Sellers, September 6, 2024

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 […]

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Pass the Popcorn: A Bookshelf video review

Review by Ron Kaplan

I have an ongoing DVR thing set up for MLB Network documentaries. Since I don’t watch that channel regularly (believe it or not), I never know what’s going to appear on the list until it shows up. Sometimes it’s not a “major motion picture,” but recently I got to watch “One of a Kind,” about […]

Tagged as: Greg Maddux

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Lest we forget: Don Wert and Mike Cubbage

Appearances to the contrary, Don Wert was not the quintessential “light hitting shortstop.” Over the course of his nine-year career, all but the last spent with the Detroit Tigers, he had four seasons of 10 or more homers to go along with slash line of .244/.314/.343 (notice how we’re getting farther and farther away from […]

Tagged as: Don Wert, Mike Cubbage

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Sandy in Minny

Jewish baseball

My article, “Sandy in Minny: Honoring Him for That,” appears in the latest edition of SABR’s The National Pastime, which was devoted to baseball in the North Star State. Koufax, the Dodger’s Hall of Famer, famously declined to pitch the opening game of the 1965 World Series because it fell on Yom Kippur, the holiest […]

Tagged as: SABR, Sandy Koufax

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Baseball Best-Sellers, August 23, 2024

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 […]

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Baseball Best-Sellers, August 9, 2024

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 […]

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The Bookshelf Conversations #182: Jim Chapman

"Bookshelf Conversations"

Just about 30 years ago, I bought Baseball’s Golden Age: The Photographs of Charles M. Conlon. Even if you’re not a connoisseur of the early 20th century game, I’m willing to be you’ve sen photos taken by Conlon. Many of the close-ups are haunting. To me, the players always seemed much older than the 20- […]

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Lest We Forget: Billy Bean

Baseball and pop culture

I must admit, when I first saw the headline, I though it was Billy Beane, the former GM of the Oakland As for the Moneyball phenomenon. But Billy Bean was a pioneer in his own right, having been the only living openly gay Major League player (current or former), after coming out in 1999. Glenn […]

Tagged as: Billy Bean

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Baseball Best-Sellers, August 2, 2024

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 […]

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The Bookshelf Conversation #181: Noah Gittell

"Bookshelf Conversations"

I don’t have a whole lot of hobbies, so when I see a book that combines any of them on my periodic “Coming down the pike” stories, I get extra pumped. Baseball: The Movie covers two of them. Now that I no longer have Turner Classic Movies, since they went to a subscription platform, I […]

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Lest We Forget: Bob Newhart

I’ve been remiss. Bob Newhart passed away July 18 at the age of 94. I don’t know how this comes across, but when a celebrity dies, I look for baseball connections. Actors who portrayed athletes in films or on stage; writers of other topics who had a fondness for the game; musicians who palled around […]

Tagged as: Bob Newhart

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Baseball Best-Sellers, July 19, 2024

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 […]

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Time, Framed

Ballparks / Stadiums

It’s easy to take a time period and hail it as a cutoff point. Think 1969, when MLB turned 100. Or maybe it was the 100th anniversary of a team or its playing ground But as we come out of the All-Star break, I wondering if we’ll ever have a moment like this […]

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You must remember this

Seems like the older I get, the more removed I am from the game played on the field. This is how I remember the All-Stars: And this is the way it is now: I understand everything these days is about selling merch, which is what further separates me from today’s fan. I love thumbing through […]

Tagged as: All Star Game, Baseball All-Star Game

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Drinks are on me

Because I can...

I was looking for a post I thought I made about donating 501 to the French Baseball Federation on a trip we took there in 2013 . The rabbit hole I fell into brought up this entry I posted in 2010 which I thought was fun and might be appropriate for these lazy days of […]

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Baseball Best-Sellers, July 12, 2024

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 […]

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Bits and Pieces, July 11, 2024

Starting July 14, the price of a First-Class Forever stamp is going from 68 cents to 73 cents. Too bad I can’t stock on this nifty Hank Aaron model, but it’s not due out until the 31st. With the All-Star Game fast approaching, this interview with Kevin Baker, author of The New York Game from […]

Tagged as: Hank Aaron, Jose Canseco, Kevin Baker, Minnesota Twins, Pete Rose

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The Bookshelf (Mini) Review: Baseball Obscura 2024

Bill James has left the building. I remember picking up the first edition of his Baseball Abstract when it first became commercially available in the late 1980s. Since then, his work has become synonymous with clever analysis, as opposed to just a collection of numbers one could find in various encyclopedias. The Walk-Off Edition, the […]

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Baseball Best-Sellers, July 5, 2024

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 […]

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The Bookshelf Conversation #180: Andy McCullough

"Bookshelf Conversations"

As I keep mentioning, regular readers of The Bookshelf know of my disdain for superlatives and similar declarations, such as “Greatest,” “Worst,” “Complete,” in titles. But there are a few cases in which they seem totally appropriate. In the case of Andy McCoullough’s new (and first) book, Clayton Kershaw just might be The Last of […]

Tagged as: Andy McCullough, Clayton Kershaw

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