A reminder: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish posting them). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes.
In addition, occasionally the powers-that-be over there try to pull a fast one by including a book in a category to which it should not be listed (in my opinion). For example, The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect has appeared on the BBS list. “Why” is a good question. There might be a smattering of the national pastime in it, but not enough to make it a baseball book per se (again, IMO).
Finally, adults only here. That is, no books for younger readers. Also no “adult” books here, that is, no romance/erotic fiction that features baseball as a theme either (although goodness knows there are a bunch of those).
So, with all that said…
The links under the authors’ names will take you to the Bookshelf Conversations I did with them. The asterisk denotes the author is a “member” of the Pandemic Baseball Book Club.
PRINT
- Swing and a Hit: Nine Innings of What Baseball Taught Me, by Paul O’Neill and Jack Curry
- Beckett Baseball Card Price Guide 2022
- THE PROCESS: A Family’s Guide to Developing College Ready Recruits from Little League through High School, by Walter Beede
- The Summer Game, by Roger Angell
- The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski
- Maris & Mantle: Two Yankees, Baseball Immortality, and the Age of Camelot, by Tony Castro
- Once More Around the Park, by Roger Angell
- Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original, by Howard Bryant
- Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
- The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams with John Underwood
KINDLE BOOKS
- Maris & Mantle
- Swing and a Hit
- The Summer Game
- This Old Man: All in Pieces, by Angell
- The Process
- The Roger Angell Baseball Collection
- A Game of Extremes: 25 Exceptional Baseball Stories about What Happened on and off the Field, by Roy Lingster
- Five Seasons, by Angell
- The Baseball 100
- Moneyball
AUDIBLE
Note: Amazon has changed the way they list audiobooks. No longer under the general category of “biography and memoir,” they are now treated in their own baseball/softball category. Here’s the general link to the section where you will find further links to the individual titles, their reader/narrators, and samples. Note further that these are updated regularly and the top ten list below might no longer be the same.
- Swing Kings: The Inside Story of Baseball’s Home Run Revolution, by Jared Diamond
- Swing and a Hit
- They Said it Couldn’t be Done, by Wayne Coffey
- Moneyball (unabridged, narrated by Scott Brick)
- The Journey Home: My Life in Pinstripes, by Jorge Posada
- The Baseball 100
- The Bad Guys Won, by Jeff Perlman
- Calico Joe, by John Grisham
- Heads-Up Baseball, by Ken Ravizza
- Rickey
As predicted, the passing of Roger Angell has created a renewed interest in his work.
Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, right now it ranks at 1,934,844 overall in books; last time, 1,406,116. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 1,859,352; last time, 1,702,816.
Shameless self-promotion: if you’re looking for some good baseball reading during this down time, why not pick up a copy of 501? It’s like the abridged dictionary; it has most of the other books in it.
A reminder: There’s an Excel “checklist” of the books list in 501. If you’re interested in keeping track of how many you have read or own, drop me a line.
If you have read either of my books, thanks, hope you enjoyed it, and please consider writing an Amazon review; it’s never too late.
is available on Amazon.com,
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