Baseball Best-Sellers, November 4, 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.

NEW: To give a sense of context, I’m including where each book falls in the overall Amazon rankings.

Believe It!: Chicago Cubs World Series Champions, by the Chicago Sun Times. (note: technically, the paperback (ranking: 481) and hardcover (1,234) editions occupy the top two spots but since it’s really one title, I’m counting them together as number one.)*
A Nice Little Place on the North Side: A History of Triumph, Mostly Defeat, and Incurable Hope at Wrigley Field, by George F. Will (2,420; paperback edition)
The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and John Underwood (2,843)
2016 Chicago Cubs World Series Program (2,906) *
Won for the Ages: How the Chicago Cubs Became the 2016 World Series Champions, by the Chicago Tribune via Triumph (3,216) *
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis (3,035)
The Bill James Handbook 2017 (3,949)
100 Things Cubs Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, by Jimmy Greenfield (3,270; out of order, but this is how Amazon lists it.)
The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports, by Jeff Passan (4,627)
Tales from the Atlanta Braves Dugout: A Collection of the Greatest Braves Stories Ever Told (Tales from the Team), by Cory McCarthey (6,115)

* Indicates debut on this list

Again, no shocker that books about the Cubs’ first world championship since 1908 fills so many slots. Even the Williams book has a connection, since the NY Times did this article. But how did that Braves book sneak in there?

NY Times: The only baseball title on the October list is a one of those quickly-published tribute pieces (it was released September 6) to a retiring legend, in this case, Big Papi: David Ortiz, Thanks for the Memories by David Fisher and David Aretha.

Not on either the Amazon or Times‘ lists? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Today: 731,706; last week: 1,237,973. It reach as high as the 200,000s during the week, but I’ll certainly take this. I wonder if this one will get a bump when the Greenberg book comes out? Bonus! But even my wife’s new book, 101 ‘Tails’ of a House Call Veterinarian is doing better at 475,383 . This cannot stand!

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.

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