Baseball Best-Sellers, February 8, 2019

Headnote: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so 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 powers-that-be over there 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 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

Baseball Prospectus 2019
The Fantasy Baseball Black Book 2019, by Steve Pisapia
Baseball America 2019 Prospect Handbook
The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created, by Jane Leavy
Ron Shandler’s 2019 Baseball Forecaster: & Encyclopedia of Fanalytics
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
Astroball: The New Way to Win It All, by Ben Reiter
Baseball America 2019 Almanac
The 1969 Cubs: Long Remembered – Long Remembered – Not Forgotten, by Fergie Jenkins with George Castle
2019 Little League Baseball® Official Regulations, Playing Rules, and Operating Policies: Tournament Rules and Guidelines for All Divisions of Little League Baseball®

E-BOOKS

The Fantasy Baseball Black Book 2019
Moneyball
2019 Little League Rule Book
The Big Fella
The Fantasy Benefit: 2019 Fantasy Baseball Draft Guide, by Justin Mason
Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game?, by Jimmy Breslin
The Shift: The Next Evolution in Baseball Thinking, by Russell A. Carleton
Francona: The Red Sox Years, by Terry Francona and Dan Shaughnessy
Game 7, 1986: Failure and Triumph in the Biggest Game of My Life,by Ron Darling And Dan Paisner
2019 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)
Astroball, (read by the author, #41)
The Big Fella (read by the author and Fred Sanders, #60)

The Big Fella dropped to #7 on the current New York Times‘ monthly sports list.

Books relating to building your fantasy league/team remain hot. I wasn’t really sure of what to do with the Jenkins book. Although he is a legitimate baseball personality — and the Cubs have every right to reminisce on the 50th anniversary of their debacle as Mets fans deserve to revel — the title of the book was misspelled on the Amazon page: “The 1969 Cubs: Long Rememebered – Long Remembered – Not Forgottten.” I took the liberty of correcting it, but what does that say about the legitimacy of the publisher who submitted it that way?

Not on either the Amazon or Times‘ lists? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Today: 1,164,283; last time: 1,391,889. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 501,667 (last time, 1,339,707). I think it would be cool if one day they ranked back-to-back, although I would prefer it at a much higher number.

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.