
Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf
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A blog for news, reviews, previews, and interviews about baseball lit and other items of pop culture interest. Bringing news about baseball publications and other media to a discerning audience.
Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf
3d ago
It’s always a pleasure to speak with Jean Fruth. Whatever project she takes on is full of passion, whether it’s photographing baseball across small town America (Grassroots Baseball: Route 66) or talking with some of the greats of the game about how they got their start (Grassroots Baseball: Where Legends Begin), or, in her latest ..read more
Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf
6d ago
As we approach spring training and the start of a new season, there will be lists of suggested reading. I find a lot of them fascinating. I was speaking with an author recently about working with editors. Undoubtedly, it helps to have one who’s knowledgeable on the topic. The same can be said about the ..read more
Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf
1w ago
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 ..read more
Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf
1w ago
A bit of a departure here. Ben Yagoda has not written a book about baseball (yet). Nor has he written a song or made a film about the game. But he is a super fan and has written reviews of others’ books about the game. Close enough for jazz. I wanted to speak with him ..read more
Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf
1w ago
From The New York Times by George Vecsey: “Fay Vincent, a lawyer who presided over Major League Baseball as its eighth commissioner during a time when it was shaken by labor strife, the first shadows of steroid use and, quite literally, a powerful earthquake that interrupted the 1989 World Series, died on Saturday in Vero ..read more
Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf
2w ago
♦ Congratulations to Larry Gerlach, winner of this year’s Seymour Medal for Lion of the League: Bob Emslie and the Evolution of the Baseball Umpire. The Seymour medal is awarded by the Society for American Baseball Research for the best book of baseball history or biography published during the preceding calendar year. Gerlach is also ..read more
Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf
2w ago
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 ..read more
Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf
2w ago
There was something about Bill Littlefield’s voice when he read his poetry (or as he refers to it, doggerel) on NPR’s Only a Game that was so soothing, as opposed to those loud-mouthed shouters on various sports talk programs. I miss him. But to prove that the Bookshelf is timeless, I had him on recently ..read more
Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf
3w ago
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 ..read more
Ron Kaplan’s Baseball Bookshelf
3w ago
What do Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabbathia, and Billy Wagner all have in common? Oh, yeah, sure, they were all just elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. But wait, there’s more. That’s right; they’ve all written memoirs. Ichiro’s book was published in 2004. There are other books about him, including The Meaning of Ichiro ..read more