The top baseball books, according to Amazon.com as of Friday, July 16.
| Title |
Rank |
| General |
| Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball, by Bill Madden |
1 |
| Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis |
2 |
| The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime, by Scott Turbow and Michael Duca |
3 |
| The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran, by Dirk Hayhurst |
4 |
| The Game from Where I Stand: A Ballplayer’s Inside View, by Doug Glanville |
5 |
| Essays and Writing |
| Moneyball |
1 |
| The Bullpen Gospels |
2 |
| The Game from Where I Stand |
3 |
| Ball Four, by Jim Bouton |
4 |
| Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu: John Updike on Ted Williams, by John Updike |
5 |
| History |
| Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend, by James S. Hirsch |
1 |
| Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball’s Super Showman, by G. Michael Green |
2 |
| Big Hair and Plastic Grass: A Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging ’70s, by Dan Epstein |
3 |
| Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu |
|
4 |
| The Philadelphia Phillies: An Extraordinary Tradition, by Scott Gummer |
5 |
| Statistics |
| Watching Baseball Smarter: A Professional Fan’s Guide for Beginners, Semi-experts, and Deeply Serious Geeks, by Zack Hample |
1 |
| The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball, by Tom Tango et al |
2 |
The Sporting News Baseball Guide, 2003 Edition : The Ultimate 2003 Season Reference |
3 |
Baseball Prospectus 2010
|
4 |
The Bill James Gold Mine |
5 |
(Note: The list includes print editions/baseball titles only, allowing for non-baseball titles and kindle editions that affected the rankings. Also, the rankings change hourly, so the result you get when you visit Amazon.com might not be the same.)
Analysis: Look for as bump on the Madden bio following the death of George Steinbrenner earlier this week, even though it dropped off The New York Times hardcover non-fiction list. No baseball titles in Amazon’s overall top 100, but Steinbrenner (4) and Moneyball (16) are in the top 25 sports best-sellers.
It’s news to me: Perhaps it’s the ripple effect of the passing of one tumultuous owner, but a new bio on former KC/Oakland Athletics kingpin Charles O. Finley breaks into the history category.
I wish I understood how Amazon keeps its stats. How on earth does the Sporting News Baseball Guide from 2003 make it in the top five stats books?
The Bullpen Gospels
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{ 3 comments }
Thanks for the info. How many more copies of Money Ball can Michael Lewis sell? Wow. What until the movie comes out.
Moneyball has become a text-book of sorts. Still can't picture it as a movie, tho. After all, it IS a book basically about business. Where's the drama? Where's the love interest? I've seen a preliinary script and — sorry to say — it's kinda boring.
Hi Ron. I share your feelings about Money Ball – the movie. The movie is supposed to star Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill (from Superbad). Can't imagine what role Hill will play.
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