Baseball Best-Sellers, May 6, 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.

The Only Rule Is It Has to Work: Our Wild Experiment Building a New Kind of Baseball Team, by Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller. (A review from The Hardball Times. Lindbergh will be the featured guest at the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse on Thursday, May 12, at 7 p.m.)
The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports, by Jeff Passan
I’m Fascinated by Sacrifice Flies: Inside the Game We All Love, by Tim Kurkjian *
The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance, by H.A. Dorfman
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
Game 7, 1986: Failure and Triumph in the Biggest Game of My Life, by Ron Darling and Daniel Paisner. (My review on Bookreporter.com)
Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty, by Charles Leerhsen (The paperback version is also on the Amazon best-seller list but I’m not including it on this here because redundant. Domus mea, praecepta mea.)
The Matheny Manifesto: A Young Manager’s Old-School Views on Success in Sports and Life, by Matheny with Jerry Jenkins
Incredible Baseball Stats: The Coolest, Strangest Stats and Facts in Baseball History, by Kevin Reavy and Ryan Spader
The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and John Underwood

It’s been almost a decade since ESPN baseball analyst Tim Kurkjian published Is This a Great Game, or What?: From A-Rod’s Heart to Zim’s Head–My 25 Years in Baseball. Times certainly have changed. Look for my review on Bookreporter.com coming soon as well as a Bookshelf Conversation with the author himself.

As of this writing, the New York Times‘ sports list for May isn’t up. On the April 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. And they still haven’t offered an baseball book reviews.

Not on either the Amazon or Times‘ lists? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Today: 1,095,555; last week: 1,020,093. Ugh, a million. The Mendoza Line of Amazon rankings.

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.