Baseball Best-Sellers, November 11, 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.

LIFE Chicago Cubs: Champions at Last (635)*
Sports Illustrated Chicago Cubs 2016 World Series Champions Commemorative Issue (See below; the first version is ranked 648)
Believe It!: Chicago Cubs World Series Champions, by the Chicago Sun Times. (note: technically, the paperback (ranking: 979) and hardcover (3,203) editions occupy the top two spots but since it’s really one title, I’m counting them together as number one.)*
Won for the Ages: How the Chicago Cubs Became the 2016 World Series Champions, by the Chicago Tribune via Triumph (1,230) *
A Season for the Ages: How the 2016 Chicago Cubs Brought a World Series Championship to the North Side, by Al Yellon (3,055)*
2016 World Series Champions – Chicago Cubs, by Major League Baseball (2,458)
The Bill James Handbook 2017 (4,935)
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis (5,880)
The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and John Underwood (7,295)
100 Things Cubs Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, by Jimmy Greenfield (7.660)

*Indicates debut on this list. Note that rankings might night jive with position on chart.

I have to cheat a bit this week since the Sports Illustrated commemorative technically accounts for three of the nine titles on the best-seller thanks to different covers. Talk about a money grab.

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.

NY Times: No baseball titles on the current list.

Not on either the Amazon or Times‘ lists? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Today: 1,043,105; last week: 731,706.

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.