Baseball Best-Sellers, April 5, 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

The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams with John Underwood
108 Stitches: Loose Threads, Ripping Yarns, and the Darndest Characters from My Time in the Game, by Ron Darling and Daniel Paisner
Inside the Empire: The True Power Behind the New York Yankees, by Bob Klapisch and Paul Solotaroff
K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, by Tyler Kepner
They Said It Couldn’t Be Done: The ’69 Mets, New York City, and the Most Astounding Season in Baseball History, by Wayne Coffey
Scoring and Scouting: How We Know What We Know About Baseball, by Christopher Phillips
Let’s Play Two: The Legend of Mr. Cub: The Life of Ernie Banks, by Ron Rapoport
After The Miracle: The Lasting Brotherhood of the ’69 Mets, by Art Shamsky and Erik Sherman
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
Astroball: The New Way to Win It All, by Ben Reiter (paperback edition)

E-BOOKS

The Wit and Wisdom of Yogi Berra, by Phil Pepe
108 Stitches
Inside the Empire
K: A History of Baseball in 10 Pitches
Moneyball
Scoring and Scouting
2019 Little League Rule Book
They Said It Couldn’t Be Done
Big Data Baseball: Math, Miracles, and the End of a 20-Year Losing Streak, by Travis Sawchik
The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created, by Jane Leavy

AUDIOBOOKS (note: the links will take you to a sample of the audio via Amazon/Audible)

108 Stitches (read by Malcolm Hillgartner, #13 overall in sports)
Moneyball, (read by Scott Brick, #16)
K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches (read by the author, #35)
Astroball, (read by the author, #42)
The Mental Game of Baseball, by H.A. Dorfman (read by Matthew Josdal, #99)

Inside the Empire debuts at #13 on The New York Times‘ weekly bestseller list and ranks #4 on the monthly sports list. After the Miracle comes in seventh on the monthly account.

What a surprise to see such an old classic topping the Amazon list. Who would have thunk it, as Casey Stengel might have said?

Still not on either the Amazon or Times‘ lists? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Today: 1,414,163; last time: 876,962. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 138,893 (last time, 849,442). (It comes in at #19 on the Teen & Young Adult Baseball & Softball list; somebody must be having a bar or bat mitzvah. Mazel tov!)

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.