Baseball best-sellers, Oct. 31

Note: Just like Chuck Lorre’s “vanity cards” at the end of The Big Bang Theory, you should read these list stories to their conclusion; the end is always changing, even though the theme is basically the same, finishing up with a self-promotional message.

On with the show…

Here are the top ten baseball books as per Amazon.com, as of this posting.

Caveat 1: Print editions only (at least for now); because I’m old school.

Caveat 2: Since the rankings are updated every hour, these lists might not longer be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them. But it’ll be close enough for government work.

Caveat 3: Sometimes they’ll try to pull one over on you and include a book within a category that doesn’t belong. I’m using my discretion to eliminate such titles from my list. For example, for some reason a recent listing included Tarnished Heels: How Unethical Actions and Deliberate Deceit at the University of North Carolina Ended the “The Carolina Way”, which, far as I can tell, is not at all about baseball, at least not in the main. For the sake of brevity, I will be omitting the subtitles, which have become ridiculously long in in some cases in recent years, also at my discretion.

Moneyball, by Michael Lewis
Derek Jeter #2: Thanks for the Memories, by David Fischer
The Bill James Handbook 2015 (November pub date)
Derek Jeter: Excellence and Elegance, by The New York Times (Pub date, Nov. 15)
The Closer, by Mariano Rivera with Wayne Coffey (Bookreporter.com review)
The Captain: The Journey of Derek Jeter, by Ian O’Connor (Bookreporter.com review)
A Nice Little Place on the North Side, by George F. Will
Sports Illustrated’s Baseball’s Greatest, Sports Illustrated
The Mental Keys to Hitting, by H.A. Dorfman
Core Four: The Heart and Soul of the Yankee Dynasty, by Phil Pepe

I wonder if the Wrigley Field renovations and the hiring of Joe Maddon as the Cubs’ new skipper has anything to do with the return of Will’s book to the list? Dorfman’s Hitting title appears much less frequently than his overall “mental approach” to the game.

Not on this list? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Ya’ll are gonna do something about that, right? Only six (!) copies left on Amazon.

And if you have read it, thanks, hope you enjoyed it, and please consider writing a review for the Amazon page. Doesn’t have to be long (or even complimentary, if you didn’t like it), but anything would be appreciated. And thanks to those who have :).