Essays discuss Eddie Gaedel, Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, Cool Papa Bell, Mickey Mantle's longest home run, famous plays, and the invention of the curve ball

The Ol' Ball Game: A Collection of Baseball Characters and Moments Worth Remembering

DONalD Hall

John B. Holway

Bob Broeg

John M. Rosenburg

Jim Kaplan

William, Wallace

Mark Alvarez

Norman L. Macht W. G. Nicholson

Sports & Outdoors

Stackpole Books

Casual fans may concentrate on the duel between batter and pitcher, but for those who know the game of baseball, nothing is more fascinating, or more important, than the art of defense. In Playing the Field Jim Kaplan takes us onto the playing field and into major league dugouts and locker rooms for a definitive look at the great defensive players of the game, past and present. Position by position, and form an overall point of view as well, Kaplan examines the great glove men―their moments of glory, how they do it, how they work together, what makes a Golden Glove winner, the tricks and maneuvers and skills that can cancel out expert hitting and the best laid plans of rival managers. More than seventy photographs help make Playing the Field a book for real baseball fans. It's a book, too, aspiring young ballplayers can turn to in order to pick up tips that will help them play the game better.

Playing the Field: Why Defense is the Most Fascinating Art in Major League Baseball

Children's Books

Algonquin Books

Boston Red Sox

Milton Cole

(Foreword) Johnny Pesky

JG Press

New York Yankees

Neil Gallagher

gallagher-mark-gallagher-neil-kaplan-jim

Book by Gallagher, Mark, Gallagher, Neil

New York Yankees: An Illustrated History

Mark Gallagher

Casey Stengel was not only one of the greatest showmen and characters in the history of baseball, he was also one of the most brilliant managers and teachers the game has even known. GOSPEL is a treatise on Stengel's "amazin" managerial skills. Chapters cover his views and strategies on managing, pitching, fielding, batting, and base running; his attitudes about ballplayer egos, on race, his all-time teams; and his surrealistic testimony before the US Senate in 1958. But as informative as the book is, it is far more funny. Included are dozens of stories about Stengel from his teammates, and dozens more by the Ol' Perfesser himself. And the 30-page "Discourse on Stengelese" is the biggest collection of language- and mind-bending Caseyisms ever assembled. For the unconverted and true believers alike, GOSPEL is a classic book about an American treasure.

The Gospel According to Casey

Ira Berkow

Baseball

Summer Game Books

"Just when you think there's nothing new to be said about baseball, along comes Jim Kaplan's latest 'takes' on the game. As a Sports Illustrated writer and then freelance author of 14 baseball books, he's covered, written and thought about the game for many decades, and in this book's tasty stew of chapters, we get a fascinating - yes, and often witty - sampling of his original, insightful and occasionally unexpected appraisals of aspects of the game. Whether offering offbeat profiles of individual players or his defense of the role that baseball continues to play in American life, Kaplan's relaxed, no-nonsense tone is backed by the authority of a guy who truly knows and loves the game." - John S. Bowman, baseball historian, co-author of Diamonds in the Rough: The Untold History of Baseball. Jim Kaplan earned a B.A. in history from Yale and an M.A. in journalism from Northwestern before spending three years as a sportswriter and book reviewer for the Minneapolis Star. He was a Sports Illustrated baseball writer for 16 years and has written 14 books on the game. George Will called him the "poet laureate" of fielding. A contract adviser for the National Writers Union (United Auto Workers, Local 1981) and a bridge columnist for the Vineyard Gazette, Kaplan and his wife, poet and critic Brooks Robards, divide their time among Northampton and Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Clearing the Bases: A Veteran Sportswriter on the National Pastime

Levellers Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Jim Kaplan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Jim Kaplan