Baseball Best-Sellers, July 1, 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.

House of Nails: A Memoir of Life on the Edge, by Lenny Dykstra *
The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports, by Jeff Passan
The Matheny Manifesto: A Young Manager’s Old-School Views on Success in Sports and Life, by Matheny with Jerry Jenkins
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 was also the featured speaker at an author event at the Bergino Baseball Clubhouse. You can hear him on the store’s podcast here:
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
The Baseball Whisperer: A Small-Town Coach Who Shaped Big League Dreams, by Michael Tackett (Release date, July 5) *
I’m Fascinated by Sacrifice Flies: Inside the Game We All Love, by Tim Kurkjian (Here’s my review on Bookreporter.com and the “Bookshelf Conversation” with the author.)
The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance, by H.A. Dorfman
The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and Tom Underwood
Terror in the City of Champions: Murder, Baseball, and the Secret Society that Shocked Depression-era Detroit, by Tom Stanton *

* Indicates debut on this list

Three titles make their debut on the Bookshelf’s BS list.

I weep for America. That Dykstra’s book should not only be the top baseball seller, but #12 in the entire rankings? That strikes me as a cultural indictment of some sort. My wife tells me Dykstra was a guest on Howard Stern’s program. Classy guy, bro. That seems more like the Lenny I know, not the one who had a turn on The Leonard Lopate Show.

Haven’t heard or seen anything about The Baseball Whisperer but Stanton does his usual thorough job with his latest Detroit-centric offering.

NY Times: Three baseball titles are included in the most recent (July) Times‘ sports list: The Arm is at #6, with Stanton’s Terror at #16. Only Rule and Sacrifice Flies make the top 10 (four and six, respectively) with Bret Boone’s Home Games at #15. That one surprises me, all due respect to Mr. Boone and co-author Kevin Cook. While I find the story of the three generations of Boone players mildly interesting, it seems like a lightweight compared with something like Leahy’s Last Innocents. One man’s opinion.

Not on either the Amazon or Times‘ lists? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Today: 968,167; last week: 450,047. Hmm.

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.