Baseball Best-Sellers, June 5, 2015

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. 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.

• Molina: The Story of the Father Who Raised an Unlikely Baseball Dynasty, by Bengie Molina
• Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty, by Charles Leerhsen
• 100 Things A’s Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die (100 Things…Fans Should Know), by Susan Slusser
• Pedro, by Pedro Martinez and Michael Silverman (My review of the Martinez and Posada books on Bookreporter.com)
• The Journey Home: My Life in Pinstripes, by Posada with Gary Brozek
• Billy Martin: Baseball’s Flawed Genius, by Bill Pennington
• Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
• Big Data Baseball: Math, Miracles, and the End of a 20-Year Losing Streak, by Travis Sawchik
• The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance, by H.A. Dorfman
• The Mental Keys to Hitting: A Handbook of Strategies for Performance Enhancement, by H.A. Dorfman

Basically, more jockeying among last week’s leaders. I would love to take a survey of pro players to se how many have read Dorfman’s books.

New York Times: Pennington’s book is #7 on the latest sports best-seller list. Also in the top 20: Moneyball (11), John Feinstein’s Where Nobody Knows Your Name (12); Jim Kaat’s If These Walls Could Talk (14); and I Never Had It Made, by Jackie Robinson (18).

Not on either list? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. As of this post, the ranking is 779,372, down from last week’s 573,241. Still, we can do better (looking for a  Father’s Day?). In addition, today’s posting comes on my birthday, so there’s that. 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.

Tagged as: baseball instructional, Bengie Molina, Billy Martin, Boston Red Sox, H.A. Dorfman, Jorge Posada, New York Yankees, Oakland As, Pedro Martinez, Pittsburgh Pirates, Ty Cobb, World Series