Baseball Best-Sellers, February 24, 2017

February 24, 2017

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.

  1. Image result for rick ankiel, bookBaseball Prospectus 2017
  2. Baseball America 2017 Prospect Handbook: Rankings and Reports of the Best Young Talent in Baseball (Feb. 28)
  3. The Phenomenon: Pressure, the Yips, and the Pitch that Changed My Life, by Rick Ankiel and Tom Brown (April 18) *
  4. 2017 Baseball Forecaster: & Encyclopedia of Fanalytics by Ron Shandler
  5. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
  6. Do You Want to Work in Baseball?: Advice to acquire employment in MLB and mentorship in Scouting and Player Development, by Bill Geivett
  7. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and John Underwood
  8. The Cubs Way: The Zen of Building the Best Team in Baseball and Breaking the Curse, by Tom Verducci
  9. The Fantasy Baseball Black Book 2017 Edition, by Joe Pasapia
  10. Teammate: My Journey in Baseball and a World Series for the Ages, by David Ross with Don Yaeger

* Making its debut on the Bookshelf Best-Seller List

Rick Ankiel, who became an legend for unfortunate reasons when he fell apart during a pitching performance for the St. Louis Cardinals and then came back as an outfielder for a brief time, tells his interesting story in book form. He was the subject of a Pat Jordan profile in The New York Times Magazine in 2001.

Two Cubs titles return to the list.

MORE lists: Amazon has started a couple of new ones, including “Hot New Releases” and “Most Wished For.” A look at the top three in each, which have remained the same since last week:

Hot New Releases

  1. Baseball Prospectus 2017
  2. Baseball America Prospect Guide
  3. The Phenom

Most Wished For

  1. Baseball Prospectus
  2. Moneyball
  3. The Cubs Way

NY Times monthly sports best-seller list: No baseball books listed in the February rolls.

Not on either the Amazon or Times‘ lists? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Today: 468,697; last week: 942,716. The usual up-and-down. I will be appearing on a couple of podcasts in the not-too-distant future, so that might bump up sales a tad. The reverse is true for my forthcoming Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War currently ranks 1,298,415, down from last week’s 831,109.

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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