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
- Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
- The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance, by H.A. Dorfman
- The Matheny Manifesto: A Young Manager’s Old-School Views on Success in Sports and Life, by Matheny with Jerry Jenkins
- 2016 Baseball Forecaster, by Ron Shandler
- This Old Man: All in Pieces, by Roger Angell
- Amazin’ Again: How the 2015 New York Mets Brought the Magic Back to Queens, by Greg Prince
- The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports, by Jeff Passan
- The Only Rule Is It Has to Work: Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team, by Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller
This is going to be some year for books about the Mets. I’ll go into this in more detail in a future entry, but between last year’s pennant-winning season and the anniversary of the 1986 World Series victory, expect a slew of titles.
New month, new The New York Times list: Baseball America 2016 Prospect Handbook ranks #7. That’s it. But, hey, Times, why can’t you update these lists weekly? If I can do it — and I’m only one man — surely you, with all your resources, can handle it as well.
Not on either the Amazon or Times‘ lists? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Today: 787,204; last week: 978,567. Baby steps. 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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