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.
- Baseball Prospectus 2016
- Baseball America 2016 Prospect Handbook: Scouting Reports and Rankings of the Best Young Talent in Baseball
- This Old Man: All in Pieces, by Roger Angell
- 2016 Baseball Forecaster, by Ron Shandler
- Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
- The Cardinals Way: How One Team Embraced Tradition and Moneyball at the Same Time, by Howard Megdal
- The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance, by H.A. Dorfman
- The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams
- Coaching Youth Baseball the Ripken Way, by Cal Ripken
- The Only Rule Is It Has to Work: Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team, by Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller
Roger Angell returns to the list, infiltrating the usual suspects at the top of the list. Also back: “instructionals” by Ripken and Williams.
The New York Times: The Matheny Manifesto, by Mike Matheny with Jerry B. Jenkins, is the only baseball title on the list, coming in at #12.
Not on either the Amazon or Times‘ lists? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Today: 1,032,287; last week: 522,362. ??? Come on, folks, tell a friend.
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.
is available on Amazon.com,
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