It must be true. I read it in The New York Times

Marty Appel, who knows a thing or two about baseball, New York, and literature, recently contributed this article about the 75 baseball titles that earned recognition as a New York Times best-seller to the online National Pastime Museum.

There might be a little local bias here: 33 of the titles were written by or about a person or people who was connected with either the Yankees, Giants, or Brooklyn Dodgers. And not to be all sour grapes, but I’m guessing a few made it because the author had written another book that made it big, such as Micheal Lewis, whose Moneyball remains a top-seller on Amazon. A couple of years later he published Coach, which appeared on the NYTBSL for five weeks. I feel the same about Calico Joe by the legal thriller writer John Grisham, which remained on the list for an astounding 15 weeks. Joe was one of only three novels on the baseball roster; the other two were a re-release of Bernard Malamud’s The Natural (just one week in 1984, coinciding with the premiere of the movie) and the over-hyped Chad Harbach story The Art of Fielding (nine weeks in 2011). It would be too arduous a process to point out all the great baseball books that one would have thought deserved consideration, but it’s important to understand that best-seller doesn’t always translate to best book (see Lenny Dykstra’s House of Nails).

Given it’s strong showing over the years, I found it surprising that Moneyball is not the all-time leader on the list, with 20 weeks. That honor goes to Sparky Lyle and Peter Golenbock who collaborated on The Bronx Zoo: The Astonishing Inside Story of the 1978 World Champion New York Yankees, originally published in 1979, with 29 weeks.

Appel, a former PR director for the New York Yankees, will soon release his new opus, Casey Stengel: Baseball’s Greatest Character. Given his track record, I expect to see this one on the Times‘ list as well.

Sadly, 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die never made the cut. Oh well. Maybe the Greenberg book will do better.

The entire list for your perusal and amazement:

1948   The Babe Ruth Story (Babe Ruth/Bob Considine) (3 )
1955   Fear Strikes Out (Jimmy Piersall/Al Hirschberg) (1)
1960   The Long Season (Jim Brosnan) (1)
1960   Baseball Is a Funny Game (Joe Garagiola) (13)
1962   Veeck As in Wreck (Bill Veeck/Ed Linn) (15)
1970   Ball Four (Jim Bouton) (17)
1971   Mr. Cub (Ernie Banks/Jim Enright) (1)
1972   The Boys of Summer (Roger Kahn) (24)
1972   The Summer Game (Roger Angell) (5)
1975   Nice Guys Finish Last (Leo Durocher/Ed Linn) (1)
1977   A Season in the Sun (Roger Kahn) (1)
1979   The Bronx Zoo (Sparky Lyle/Peter Golenbock) (29)
1980   Number 1 (Billy Martin/Peter Golenbock) (8)
1982   The Umpire Strikes Back (Ron Luciano/David Fisher) (18)
1982   Late Innings (Roger Angell) (6)
1984   Reggie (Reggie Jackson/Mike Lupica) (4)
1984   Bill James Historical Abstract (Bill James) (13)
1984   Strike Two (Ron Luciano/David Fisher) (1)
1984   The Natural (fiction-Bernard Malamud) (1)
1983   Balls (Graig Nettles/Peter Golenbock) (15)
1988 The Duke of Flatbush (Duke Snider/Bill Gilbert) (2)
1989   Pete Rose: My Story (Pete Rose/Roger Kahn) (2)
1989   Shoeless Joe (W.P. Kinsella) (4)
1989   Yogi (It Ain’t Over) (Yogi Berra/Tom Horton) (2)
1990   Men at Work (George Will) (35)
1990   Behind the Mask (Dave Pallone/Alan Steinberg) (5)
1990   Bo Knows Bo (Bo Jackson/Dick Schaap) (16)
1991   I Had a Hammer (Hank Aaron/Lonnie Wheeler) (5)
1991   My Favorite Summer (Mickey Mantle/Phil Pepe) (6)
1994   All My Octobers (Mickey Mantle/Mickey Herskowitz) (6)
1997   Wait till Next Year (Doris Kearns Goodwin) (10)
1998   Bunts (George Will) (2)
2000   Fair Ball (Bob Costas) (10)
2000   Joe DiMaggio (Richard Ben Cramer) (9)
2001   When You Come to A Fork in the Road (Yogi Berra/David Kaplan) (7)
2001   Zimmer (Don Zimmer/Bill Madden) (3)
2002   Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy (Jane Leavy) (16)
2003   Perfect I’m Not (David Wells/Chris Kreski) (5)
2003   The Teammates (David Halberstam) (13)
2003   Moneyball (Michael Lewis) (20)
2003   Me and My Dad (Paul O’Neill/Burton Rocks) (1)
2004   My Prison without Bars (Pete Rose/Rick Hill) (5)
2004   Ted Williams (Leigh Montville) (1)
2005   Juiced (Jose Canseco) (8)
2005   Three Nights in August (Buzz Bissinger) (20)
2005   Idiot (Johnny Damon/Peter Golenbock) (2)
2005   Coach (Michael Lewis) (5)
2005   Luckiest Man (Jonathan Eig) (1)
2005   Praying for Gil Hodges (Thomas Oliphant) (1)
2006   Game of Shadows (Mark Fainaru-Wade/Lance Williams) (5)
2006   Clemente (David Maraniss) (5)
2006   The Big Bam (Leigh Montville) (1)
2006   Feeding the Monster (Seth Mnookin) (2)
2007   Big Papi (David Ortiz/Tony Massarotti) (2)
2008 Vindicated (Jose Canseco) (2)
2008   Yankee for Life (Bobby Murcer/Glen Waggoner) (1)
2008   Beyond Belief (Josh Hamilton/Tim Keown) (1)
2009   The Yankee Years (Joe Torre/Tom Verducci) (14)
2009   A-Rod (Selena Roberts) (1)
2009   Satchel (Larry Tyre) (2)
2010   Willie Mays (James Hirsch) (4)
2010   Steinbrenner (Bill Madden) (5)
2010   The Last Boy (Jane Leavy) (13)
2010   The Bullpen Gospels (paperback-Dick Hayhurst) (3)
2011   The Art of Fielding (fiction-Chad Harbach) (9)
2012   Driving Mr. Yogi (Harvey Araton) (1)
2012 Imperfect (Jim Abbott/Tim Brown) (1)
2012   Calico Joe (fiction- John Grisham (15)
2012   Wherever I Wind Up (R.A. Dickey/Wayne Coffey) (1)
2012   One Last Strike (Tony LaRussa/Rick Hummel) (3)
2013   Francona (Terry Francona/Dan Shaughnessy) (2)
2014   Where Nobody Knows Your Name (John Feinstein) (2)
2014   The Closer (Mariano Rivera/Wayne Coffey) (9)
2014   Jeter Unfiltered (Derek Jeter/Christopher Anderson) (5)
2016   House of Nails (Lenny Dykstra) (2)