Baseball Best-Sellers, February 15, 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

1. Baseball Prospectus 2019
2. Baseball America 2019 Prospect Handbook
3. The Fantasy Baseball Black Book 2019, by Steve Pisapia
4. Ron Shandler’s 2019 Baseball Forecaster: & Encyclopedia of Fanalytics
5. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
6. The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created, by Jane Leavy
7. Astroball: The New Way to Win It All, by Ben Reiter
8. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and John Underwood
9. Heads-Up Baseball : Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time, by Tom Hanson
10. The Story of Baseball: In 100 Photographs, Sport Illustrated

E-BOOKS

1. Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game? by Jimmy Breslin
2. Moneyball
3. Francona: The Red Sox Years, by Terry Francona and Dan Shaughnessy
4. The Fantasy Benefit: 2019 Fantasy Baseball Draft Guide, by Justin Mason
5. 2019 NFHS Baseball Rules Book
6. Summer of ’49, by David Halberstam
7. The Bill James Handbook 2019
8. The Shift: The Next Evolution in Baseball Thinking, by Russell A. Carleton
9. The Fantasy Baseball Black Book 2019
10. Driving Mr. Yogi: Yogi Berra, Ron Guidry, and Baseball’s Greatest Gift, by Harvey Araton

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)

1. Moneyball, (read by Scott Brick, #22 overall in sports)
2. Astroball, (read by the author, #51)
3. Heads-Up Baseball (read by Michael Haytack, #87)

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

Nothing brand new to report. Sam Old, same old, although maybe switching spots.

Not on either the Amazon or Times‘ lists? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Today: 126,378; last time: 1,164,283. Up a million spots? I’ll take it. Thanks to the five people who bought it since then. Meanwhile, Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 1,131,717 (last time, 501,667; oh, well).

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.

Tagged as: Babe Ruth, baseball rookies, Fantasy baseball, Houston Astros, Micheal Lewis, Oakland As, Ted Williams, World Series