* TWIBB — October 23

This week in baseball books, featuring the best-sellers according to Amazon.com on Friday, October 23.

Title	Rank
General
Now I Can Die in Peace: How The Sports Guy Found Salvation Thanks to the World Champion (Twice!) Red Sox, by Bill Simmons	1
Sixty Feet, Six Inches: A Hall of Fame Pitcher & a Hall of Fame Hitter Talk about How the Game is Played, by Bob Gibson, Reggie Jackson, and Lonnie Wheeler	2
The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series: The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds, by Joe Posnanski	3
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis	4
The Bill James Handbook 2010*	5
Essays and Writing
Now I Can Die in Peace	1
Sixty Feet Six Inches	2
Moneyball	3
As They See ‘Em: A Fan’s Travels in the Land of Umpires, by Bruce Weber	4
Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back, by Josh Hamilton	5
History
Now I Can Die in PeaceThe Machine	1
Sixty Feet, Six Inches	2
The Machine	3
Game Six: Cincinnati, Boston, and the 1975 World Series: The Triumph of America’s Pastime, by Mike Frost	4
The First Fall Classic: The Red Sox, the Giants and the Cast of Players, Pugs and Politicos Who Re-Invented the World Series in 1912, by Mike Vaccaro	5
Statistics
The Bill James Handbook 2010	1
Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan’s Guide for Beginners, Semi-experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks, by Zack Hample	2
The Hardball Times Baseball Annual 2010	3
2010 Baseball Forecaster, by Ron Shandler	4
Baseball Between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know About the Game Is Wrong	5

* The real fourth-place title was Mathletics: How Gamblers, Managers, and Sports Enthusiasts Use Mathematics in Baseball, Basketball, and Football by Wayne L. Winston, but since it’s not strictly about baseball, I excluded it from the list. Because that’s how I roll.

Analysis: The Machine, Game Six, and The First Fall Classic — three World Series titles — remain in the top five in the history category.

Josh Hamilton’s tale of redemption returns to the essay section.

Now that the regular season is over, the numbers books — aimed at fantasy league players — will be hitting the stores in droves. This week’s addition is Ron Shandler’s 2010 Baseball Forecaster.

No baseball titles in Amazon’s top 100 bestseller list. nor among the NY Times top 35 non-fictional titles.

<a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061625450?ie=UTF8&tag=ronkapsbasb04-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0061625450″>Baseball Americana: Treasures from the Library of Congress</a><img src=”http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=ronkapsbasb04-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0061625450″ width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”” style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” />