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 Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports, by Jeff Passan
- Baseball Prospectus 2016
- Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
- The Matheny Manifesto: A Young Manager’s Old-School Views on Success in Sports and Life, by Matheny with Jerry Jenkins
- If These Walls Could Talk: Milwaukee Brewers: Stories from the Milwaukee Brewers Dugout, Locker Room, and Press Box
, by Bill Schroeder
- Baseball America 2016 Prospect Handbook: Scouting Reports and Rankings of the Best Young Talent in Baseball
- The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance, by H.A. Dorfman
- Finley Ball: How Two Baseball Outsiders Turned the Oakland A’s into a Dynasty and Changed the Game Forever
, by Nancy Finley
- The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams
- Stealing Games: How John McGraw Transformed Baseball with the 1911 New York Giants
, by Murray Klein
* indicates titles making their debut on the Bookshelf BBS list.
All due respect to the authors — because work is work — but there two titles on the list provide some “fingernails on the blackboard” cringes for me. The first are the types of books that collect anecdotes, almost always from other sources, as opposed to direct interviews with the author. The second is the use of the word “forever.” Okay, moving on.
No new titles on the April New York Times list. Mariano Rivera’s The Closer comes in at #13. If you’re interested, as I am, in how they decide these things, click on the link at the bottom of the list’s page.
Not on either the Amazon or Times‘ lists? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Today: 1,102,446; last week: 1,063,064. That’s three weeks in a row of downward numbers. Come on, folks, tell a friend. New season means new chances to find something good to read. 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.
is available on Amazon.com,
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