Baseball Best Sellers, March 25, 2016

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
The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports, by Jeff Passan
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
Baseball America 2016 Prospect Handbook: Scouting Reports and Rankings of the Best Young Talent in Baseball
The Matheny Manifesto: A Young Manager’s Old-School Views on Success in Sports and Life, by Matheny with Jerry Jenkins
Stealing Games: How John McGraw Transformed Baseball with the 1911 New York Giants, by Murray Klein *
The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance, by H.A. Dorfman
The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams
The Selling of the Babe: The Deal That Changed Baseball and Created a Legend, by Glenn Stout *
Baseball’s No-Hit Wonders: More Than a Century of Pitching’s Greatest Feats, by Dirk Lammers *

* indicates titles making their debut on the BBS lists.

‘Tis the season. With a slew of new books hitting or about to hit the stores, look for a quick turnover on these lists. Three new titles make their debut here, two of them dealing specifically with people and events from almost a century ago while the other includes the entirety of baseball’s history.

The New York Times list: Baseball America 2016 Prospect Handbook ranks #7.

Not on either the Amazon or Times‘ lists? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Today: 1,063,064; last week: 995,571. That’s two weeks in a row of downward numbers. Come on, folks, tell a friend. Makes for great conversations in between innings.

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.