Baseball Best-Sellers, January 18, 2019

Headnote: 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. For example, this week the #2 book on the baseball best-seller list is The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect. “Why” is a good question.

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

The MVP Machine: How Baseball’s New Nonconformists Are Using Data to Build Better Players, by Ben Lindbergh and Travis Sawchik
Baseball Prospectus 2019
Ron Shandler’s 2019 Baseball Forecaster: & Encyclopedia of Fanalytics
The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created, by Jane Leavy
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
Astroball: The New Way to Win It All, by Ben Reiter
The Fantasy Baseball Black Book 2019, by Steve Pisapia
Baseball America 2019 Prospect Handbook
Baseball America 2019 Almanac
Bill James Handbook Paperback 2019

E-BOOKS

The MVP Machine
Moneyball
The Fantasy Baseball Black Book 2019
The Big Fella
Francona: The Red Sox Years, by Terry Francona and Dan Shaughnessy
Baseball Forecaster
Astroball
2019 NFHS Baseball Rules Book
The Catcher Was a Spy, by Nicholas Dawidoff
Memories of Summer, by Roger Kahn

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, #35 overall in sports)
Ninety-Percent Mental, by Bob Tewskbury (narrated by the author, #62)
Astroball, (read by the author, #68)
Heads-Up Baseball 2.0: 5 Skills for Competing One Pitch at a Time, by Dr. Ken Ravizza and Dr. Tin Hanson (read by Michael Haytack, #99)

The Big Fella is #2 on the current New York Times‘ monthly sports list. The Story of Baseball in 100 Photographs is #6.

Six of the top ten books involve either info for setting up your fantasy teams of some type of statistical recap (seven if you count The MVP Machine).

Not on either the Amazon or Times‘ lists? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Today: 393,258; last time: 1,882,044. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 794,750 (last time, 795,240). I’m guessing that the upcoming season has something to do with a renewed interest in learning more about the game through literature.

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.

A reminder: I’ll be appearing on an author’s panel at the annual SABR Day event at the Hoboken Public Library, 500 Park Avenue, from Noon-4:15 p.m. Other panelists include Howard Megdal (The Baseball Talmud: The Definitive Position-by-Position Ranking of Baseball’s Chosen Players; The Cardinals Way: How One Team Embraced Tradition and Moneyball at the Same Time; Taking the Field: A Fan’s Quest to Run the Team He Loves; and Wilpon’s Folly: The Story of a Man, His Fortune, and the New York Mets) and Lincoln Mitchell Will Big League Baseball Survive?: Globalization, the End of Television, Youth Sports, and the Future of Major League Baseball and Baseball Goes West: The Dodgers, the Giants, and the Shaping of the Major Leagues).