Note: Just like Chuck Lorre’s “vanity cards” at the end of The Big Bang Theory, you should read these list stories to their conclusion; the end is always changing, even though the theme is basically the same, finishing up with a self-promotional message.
So without further ado, here are the top ten baseball books as per Amazon.com, as of this posting.
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. For the sake of brevity, I will be omitting the subtitles, which have become ridiculously long in in some cases in recent years, also at my discretion.
Baseball Prospectus 2015- Jeter Unfiltere
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, by Derek Jeter
- Baseball America 2015 Prospect Handbook: The 2015 Expert guide to Baseball Prospects and MLB Organization Rankings
- Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
, by Michael Lewis
- 2015 Baseball Forecaster: An Encyclopedia of Fanalytics
, by Ron Shandler
- 100 Years of Who’s Who in Baseball
, by Douglas Lyons (Bookshelf review here.)
- The Bill James Handbook 2015
- The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance
, by H.A. Dorfman
- The Natural
, by Bernard Malamud
- Baseball America 2015 Almanac: A Comprehensive Review of the 2014 Season
If I had time, I would go back to when I started toing these to see of Dorfman’s classic is cyclical. That is, does it disappear at a certain point and make a comeback of sorts before the new season starts?
It will also be interesting to see the reaction to the Who’s Who in Baseball retrospective. Don’t want to influence anyone, but I was disappointed with the product.
Not on this list? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Ya’ll are gonna do something about that, right?
If you have read it, thanks, hope you enjoyed it, and please consider writing a review for the Amazon page. 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 :).
is available on Amazon.com,
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