TWIBB: Oct. 30, 2010

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 Game, by Michael Lewis	3
The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime, by Jason Turbow with Michael Duca	4
Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball, by Bill Madden	5
Essays and Writing
Moneyball	1
Beyond Belief, by	2
Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu: John Updike on Ted Williams, by John Updike	3
The Yogi Book, by Yogi Berra	4
The Bullpen Gospels: Major League Dreams of a Minor League Veteran, by Dirk Hayhurst	5
History
Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy (P.S.), by Jane Leavy	1
Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend , by James S. Hirsch	2
, by Danny Peary and Tom Clavin	3
Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu	4
Dynasty: The New York Yankees, 1949-1964, by Peter Golenbock	5
Statistics
The Bill James Handbook 2011	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 2011	3
Baseball Prospectus 2010	4
The World Series: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Fall Classic, by Josh Leventhal	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: The Last Boy debuts on the NY Times bestseller list at #4. It’s also the top sports book and 25th overall on Amazon. Josh Hamilton’s memoir comes in at #14 on the sports list. Peary/Clavin and Golenbock (and perhaps Madden?) reap the ancillary benefits of renewed interest in Mickey Mantle. Leavy also, since her Koufax bio is also back among the leaders.

It’s news to me:Don’t know how it got dropped into the Statistics category, but a book on the World Series is certainly understandable at this time of year.