Baseball Best-Sellers, March 9, 2018

I’ve decided to bow to the times and include separate lists for e-books and audio books. Be aware that while many titles also appear in print versions, pretty much anyone can produce an e-book these days, so I’m not going to comment at all about the quality. As far as the audio goes, I’m a big fan of these, especially when the author is the reader, since who knows better how it should “sound” than the person who created it?

The other caveats remain the same, however: 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.

In addition, sometimes the list-makers will try to pull a fast one by including a book in a category to which it should not be listed. 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. I’m using my discretion to eliminate such titles here.

Finally, adults only here. That is, no books for younger readers (although no erotic fiction that features baseball as a theme either. And goodness knows there are a bunch of those).

So, with all that said…

PRINT

Baseball Prospectus 2018
The Baby Bombers: The Inside Story of the Next Yankees Dynasty, by Bryan Hoch
Try Not to Suck: The Exceptional, Extraordinary Baseball Life of Joe Maddon, by Bill Chastain
Baseball America 2018 Prospect Handbook
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
The Fantasy Baseball Black Book 2018, by Joe Pasapia
The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and John Underwood
Ron Shandler’s 2018 Baseball Forecaster: & Encyclopedia of Fanalytics
Baseball, Boys, and Bad Words, by Andy Andrews
The Baseball Drill Book

E-BOOKS

2018 Little League Rulebook
Fantasy Baseball for Smart People, by Jonathan Bales
I Never Had it Made, by Jackie Robinson and Alfred Duckett
Moneyball
Ball Four, by Jim Bouton
The Machine: A Hot Team, a Legendary Season, and a Heart-stopping World Series: The Story of the 1975 Cincinnati Reds, by Joe Posnanski
The Baby Bombers by Hoch
Try Not to Suck, by Chastain
Saving Babe Ruth, by Tom Swyers
2018 NFHS Baseball Rules Book

AUDIOBOOKS (out of the top 100 sports best-sellers. The links will take you to the Amazon page where you can listen to a sample of the book)

Moneyball (Read by Scott Brick, #24 overall in sports)
Ball Four, by Jim Bouton (#59)
Smart Baseball, by Keith Law (#75)

Funny story about the Maddon book: He hasn’t read it.

Once again, no baseball titles on the NY Times‘ Top 10 list either for weekly or monthly.

Not on either the Amazon or Times‘ (duh) lists? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Today: 265,032; last time: 1,452,231. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 849,457 (last time, 844,913). By the way, this article from Sports Collectors Digest puts the Greenberg book at #10 on its list of best baseball books of 2017.

If you have read either of those books, thanks, hope you enjoyed it, and please consider writing an Amazon review; it’s never too late. (And thanks to those who have.) Doesn’t have to be long or even complimentary, if you didn’t like it. Although I would warn you to understand what it is you’re reading. My editor tells me I shouldn’t worry over bad reviews and normally I don’t. But one Greenberg reviewer complained because apparently he felt it wasn’t long enough and that it wasn’t a full biography. Sorry, but caveat emptor: The title clearly states this book covers just one season in his career. If you’re disappointed for that reason, then that’s on you.