Baseball Best-Sellers, February 22, 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
Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises, by Tom Stone
Baseball America 2019 Prospect Handbook
The Fantasy Baseball Black Book 2019, by Steve Pisapia
Astroball: The New Way to Win It All, by Ben Reiter
The Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball, by John Helyar
Ron Shandler’s 2019 Baseball Forecaster: & Encyclopedia of Fanalytics
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created, by Jane Leavy
The Bill James Handbook 2019

E-BOOKS

Baseball Prospectus 2019
Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinsion’s First Season, by Jonathan Eig
The Fantasy Benefit: 2019 Fantasy Baseball Draft Guide, by Justin Mason
Moneyball
2019 Little League Rule Book
Astroball
The Fantasy Benefit: 2019 Fantasy Baseball Draft Guide
Lords of the Realm
Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game? by Jimmy Breslin
Francona: The Red Sox Years, by Terry Francona and Dan Shaughnessy

AUDIOBOOKS

Moneyball, (read by Scott Brick, #18 overall in sports)
Astroball, (read by the author, #30)
The Big Fella, (read by Fred Sanders, #67)

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

Fantasy books continue to rule the roost as we get closer to opening day. A surprise in Helyar’s classic abut the business of baseball, originally published in 1994 and updated in 1995 to include the previous season’s strike.

Not on either the Amazon or Times‘ lists? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Today: 1,216,048; last time: 126,378. Oh, well. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 1,263,627 (last time, 1,131,717).

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.