Baseball Best-Sellers, March 10, 2017

March 10, 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 dynastic, bombasticBaseball Prospectus 2017
  2. Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic: Reggie, Rollie, Catfish, and Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s, by Jason Turbow *
  3. Baseball America 2017 Prospect Handbook: Rankings and Reports of the Best Young Talent in Baseball
  4. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
  5. Ballplayer, by Chipper Jones with Carroll Rogers Walton
  6. The Cubs Way: The Zen of Building the Best Team in Baseball and Breaking the Curse, by Tom Verducci
  7. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and John Underwood
  8. 2017 Baseball Forecaster: & Encyclopedia of Fanalytics, by Ron Shandler
  9. The Phenomenon: Pressure, the Yips, and the Pitch that Changed My Life, by Rick Ankiel and Tom Brown (April 18)
  10. The Matheny Manifesto: A Young Manager’s Old-School Views on Success in Sports and Life, by Mike Methany with Jerry B. Jenkins

Jason Turbow, who published The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime with Michael Duca in 2010, is back with a new look at the colorful Oakland As of the early 1970s. Is it my imagination, or as boomers get older the “nostalgia years” move along with them? It’s no longer  the events, teams, and players of the 1950-60s, it seems, getting most of the recent attention.

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. Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic
  3. Baseball America Prospect Guide

Most Wished For

  1. Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic
  2. Smart Baseball, by Keith Law
  3. The Cubs Way

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

Not on either the Amazon or Times‘ lists? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Today: 874,926; last week: 492,385. My forthcoming Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War currently ranks 1,095,826, down from last week’s 869,259.

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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