Baseball Best-Sellers, Feb. 27, 2015

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.

So without further ado, 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.

Baseball America 2015 Prospect Handbook: The 2015 Expert Guide to Baseball Prospects and MLB Organization Rankings
Baseball Prospectus 2015
2015 Baseball Forecaster: An Encyclopedia of Fanalytics, by Ron Shandler
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
Jeter Unfiltered, by Derek Jeter (Bookshelf review here).
Beyond Belief: Finding the Strength to Come Back, by Josh Hamilton and Tim Keown
Fantasy Baseball for Smart People: How to Profit Big During MLB Season, by Jonathan Bales
The Bill James Handbook 2015
100 Years of Who’s Who in Baseball, by Douglas B. Lyons
Heads-Up Baseball : Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time, by Hanson and Ravizza

Amazing how quickly the Josh Hamilton curiosity factor has set in. A bit of irony here? A cynic might suggest he did it for the book sales bump.

Here’s the latest monthly (February) New York Times sports best-seller list (10 plus 10 more). Jeter Unfiltered remains in the eighth spot. Glory Days in Tribe Town, which follows the fates of the Cleveland Indians by Terry Pluto and Tom Hamilton, is lucky 13 and the only other baseball title in the lineup. Look for more baseball titles to populate the list in the next monthly revision.

Not on either list? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Ya’ll are gonna do something about that, right?

If you have read it, thanks, hope you enjoyed it, and please consider writing a review for the Amazon page. There haven’t been any in awhile. 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.