Baseball Best-Sellers, Aug. 21, 2015

NOTE: I have been posting these things long enough now that a few have commented that the introductory section isn’t necessary anymore. But I’m leaving it in because, to paraphrase Joe DiMaggio when asked why he played so hard all the time, there may be people who’ve never read the best-seller entries before. So on with the show…

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.

The Best Team Money Can Buy: The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Wild Struggle to Build a Baseball Powerhouse, by Molly Knight
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
The Natural, by Bernard Malamud
The Grind: Inside Baseball’s Endless Season, by Barry Svrluga
Big Data Baseball: Math, Miracles, and the End of a 20-Year Losing Streak, by Travis Sawchik
Jeter Unfiltered, by Jeter
The Pine Tar Game: The Kansas City Royals, the New York Yankees, and Baseball’s Most Absurd and Entertaining Controversy, by Filip Bondy (My Bookreporter.com review here and Bookshelf Conversation here)
The Mental Keys to Hitting: A Handbook of Strategies for Performance Enhancement, by H.A. Dorfman
The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams
Molina: The Story of the Father Who Raised an Unlikely Baseball Dynasty, by Bengie Molina

Pretty much the same as the last BBS post, with the return of William’s classic.

New York Times: On the August list, Knight’s book about the Dodgers debuts in the number three slot and is the only baseball title in the top 10 sports books. Jeter’s Unfiltered is #12 with another new arrival, Dick Flavin’s Red Sox Rhymes: Verses and Curses at #13, followed by Pedro at #16. Flavin is the PA announcer at Fenway Park and the team’s poet laureate.

Not on either list? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. As of this post, the ranking is 1,007,394, down a hair from last week’s 1,061,795. That million mark is psychologically damaging to my psyche so help a brother out. (I’m hoping the slide is being offset by sales of the new book.

If you have read 501, 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.