Baseball Best-Sellers, Nov. 13, 2015

November 13, 2015 · 1 comment

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.

  1. https://i2.wp.com/ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51DnBZ98fUL._SX375_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg?resize=164%2C217This Old Man: All in Pieces, by Roger Angell
  2. The Bill James Handbook 2016
  3. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis. (My review of Moneyball in the Elysian Fields Quarterly.)
  4. Pitch by Pitch: My View of One Unforgettable Game, by Bob Gibson with Lonnie Wheeler (you can listen to a Bookshelf Conversation with Wheeler here).
  5. The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond, by Jerry Silverman
  6. Taking the Crown: The Kansas City Royals’ Amazing 2015 Season, by Matt Fulks
  7. The Betrayal: The 1919 World Series and the Birth of Modern Baseball, by Charles Fountain
  8. 2015 World Series Champions: Kansas City Royals, by Major League Baseball
  9. More Than a Season: Building a Championship Culture, by Dayton Moore.
  10. The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance, by H.A. Dorfman

Looking forward to Angell’s new title, slate for release Nov. 17. I’m sure it won’t be solely about baseball, but who cares?

As predicted, books about the Royals are sprouting like weeds with three appearing in this week’s list.

New York Times: Only one title appears in the top 20 and it’s Jeter’s Unfiltered, coming in at Number 14. And considering it’s not much from a literary standpoint (all due respect), that’s even more sad.

https://i1.wp.com/njjewishnews.com/kaplanskorner/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/SDKapBooks.jpg?resize=203%2C152Not on either list? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. This week: 509,233. Last week: 1,105,961, so woo-hoo. It was a kick seeing it on the table of books for sale at the San Diego Jewish Book Fair. And just a reminder: the holidays are just around the corner.

If you have read 501, thanks, hope you enjoyed it, and please consider writing a review for the Amazon page; it’s never too late. 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.

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1 Mark Wernick November 14, 2015 at 4:57 pm

On "The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond", that should be by Jeff Silverman. Also, that book came out in 2001, so I'm curious re: what best seller list it's been on all that time? But most importantly, I personally judge this book worthy of any best seller list for a century. It's a terrific anthology, and includes the Updike classic about Ted Williams' last game, classics by Ring Lardner, Zane Grey, Red Smith, W.P. Kinsella, and what I consider the greatest baseball short piece ever written, "The Web of the Game", by Roger Angell.

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