Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf
If it fits on a bookshelf, it fits here.
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How many ballplayers owe their careers to the work of Dr. Jobe, who pioneered the medical technique we know today as “Tommy John Surgery?” Jobe died yesterday at the age of 88. Here’s the NY Times obit by Richard Goldstein, who most recently wrote about the late Eddie O’Brien. Theorists love to talk about how […]
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Talk about your odd couples. A few weeks ago on Kaplan’s Korner, I posted about a Jewish-themed episode of the old Bill Cosby Show. This one titled “Dennis and The Dodger,” doesn’t have a Jewish slant, aside from the appearance of Koufax himself. And this was in 1959, before Koufax began his streak of five […]
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(Because this looks like a sticker, and you can put stickers on your bookcase, although I wouldn’t recommend it; they ruin the finish when you try to remove them.) The Internet Baseball Writers Association of America, of which I am a proud lifetime member, just released its new logo: Students of the game will recognize […]
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BaseballCardInvestment.comt posted this piece on “Sandy Koufax Baseball Cards: A Short but Solid List.” I’m guessing it applies to at least a few of you out there.
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Raise your hand if you, like me, are tired to the cliche about the thinnest publication being a treatise on Jewish sports heroes (or some riff thereon). It is therefore with an understandable sense of pride that I recommend Jewish Jocks: An Unorthodox Hall of Fame. While this collection of 50 essays isn’t just about […]
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(Close enough for government work.) Artist Ron Lewis whose previous creations has celebrated living members of baseball’s 500 home run club, 3,000 hit club, and its 3,000-strikeout pitchers, among other sports icons, has completed a new lithograph presenting 26 living Jewish baseball players. Copyright Art O Graphs (Of course, this little image doesn’t do […]
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by Arnold Hano. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1964. After reading his classic A Day In The Bleachers and interviewing him for a Bookshelf podcast, I was thrilled to find this little gem available through my local library coop. What makes Sandy Koufax: Strikeout King interesting is the fact that it was published before his famous decision […]
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Some vacation. Actually it was no vacation at all. This is the first time since Aug. 1 I’ve been upright, pain-free, and clear-headed enough to post. Following my 11-seconds of fame as one of the first-pitch-throwers at a Trenton Thunder game, I’ve been suffering with a respiratory infection that had me feverish, coughing, and otherwise […]
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In this case, the “K” stands for Koufax. Artist Loren Kantor is offering woodcuts of the Hall of Famer. A 5″ x 6″, hand-pulled block print on acid-free archival paper will cost you a C-note.
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Editor’s note: JTA published this excerpt from Jewish Major Leaguers in Their Own Words: Oral Histories of 23 Players, edited by Peter Ephross and published by McFarland. Talkin’ baseball: Jewish Major Leaguers and why we care about them by Peter Ephross Nearly all fans of baseball history have heard of Hank Greenberg. Most have heard […]
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You just need a big bookshelf. The Los Angeles Dodgers are celebrating their 50th anniversary in their eponymous stadium so to mark the occasion they’ll be giving out bobblehead dolls throughout the season. According to Tom Hoffarth on his blog, the schedule falls out thus: Don Drysdale and Maury Wills: Saturday, April 28 vs. […]
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From Abebooks.com, a new twist on the old theme of losing one’s prized baseball card: Using it as a place keeper but forgetting to remove it when selling the volume to the local used book store. THE SPORTING “A Mickey Mantle rookie baseball card. It was the original 1952 Topps #311 baseball card and not […]
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Had an unusual and fun experience on Tuesday. WNET/Channel 13 will broadcast the documentary Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story on Monday, June 6, at 8 p.m. According to the program description on the website, “Yogi Berra, Sandy Koufax and more greats are featured in this look at Jewish Americans and baseball.” Didn’t know […]
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Since I started blogging about baseball literature and collectibles, I’ve become increasingly enamored with and appreciative of the “art” of the game. Not the way the players perform, but by those who depict those performances through the pencil, the paintbrush, the camera, or any other method. It’s especially rewarding to find “unknown” artists (although they […]
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The National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, located in Commack, NY, opened an exhibit in December in celebration of Sandy Koufax’s 75th birthday. The paintings, photographs, and other bric-a-brac have been assembled by Alan Freedman, director of the Hall into a beautiful paperback volume, Sandy Koufax: 32 at 75. Fans of baseball/sports art will immediately […]
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Dandy Sandy turns 75 (!) today. Can it really be? I hope I look that good when I’m his age. Or ever. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I’m going to refer to previous links about the Dodger (and Jewish) legend from Kaplan’s Korner, my blog about Jews and sports. Because you can never get enough […]
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Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood, by Janey Leavy. Harper, 2010. If she’s not careful, Jane Leavy will earn a reputation as the Boswell of the battered ballplayer. In 2002, she wrote the definitive biography (to this point) of the role model to Jewish boomers everywhere in Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy. In […]
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The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Oct. 30 at 1 p.m. 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 […]
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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
