Baseball Best-Sellers, May 10, 2019

Note: The Amazon rankings are updated every hour, so these lists might not be 100 percent accurate by the time you read them (or even by the time I finish writing one). But close enough for government work, as the saying goes.

In addition, occasionally 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 (in my opinion). For example, a current title on the BBS list is The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect. “Why” is a good question. There might be a smattering of the national pastime in it, but not enough to make it a baseball book per se (again, IMO).

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

K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, by Tyler Kepner (hardcover)
Hidden Ball Trick: The Baseball Stats You Never Thought To Look For From 1876-1919 (Vol. 1), by Jeremy Frank and Jim Psson, Jr.
The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams with John Underwood
Chumps to Champs: How the Worst Teams in Yankees History Led to the ’90s Dynasty, by Bill Pennington
Full Count: The Education of a Pitcher, by David Cone and Jack Curry
Astroball: The New Way to Win It All, by Ben Reiter (paperback edition)
My Dad, Yogi: A Memoir of a Baseball Family, by Dale Berra and Mark Ribowsky
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
Inside the Empire: The True Power Behind the New York Yankees, by Bob Klapisch and Paul Solotaroff
Ten Innings at Wrigley: The Wildest Ballgame Ever, with Baseball on the Brink, by Kevin Cook

E-BOOKS

Moneyball
K: A History of Baseball in 10 Pitches
Moneyball
2019 Little League Rule Book
Francona: The Red Sox Years
Inside the Empire
108 Stitches, by Ron Darling and Daniel Paisner
Ten Innings at Wrigley
Astroball
Ball Four, by Jim Bouton

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

Moneyball (read by Scott Brick, #26 overall in sports)
K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches (read by the author, #46)
Ninety Percent Mental, by Bob Tewksbury (read by the author, #60)
Ten Innings at Wrigley (read by Barry Abrams, #87)

K, by NY Times baseball writer Kepner, dropped off the paper’s non-fiction hardcover list, but it is second on the May monthly sports list with 108 Stitches and Inside the Empire fifth and eighth, respectively.

Several new books dot this week’s list. Hidden Ball seems quite specialized and the topic is not one that’s in my wheelhouse. My Dad, Yogi, is also something I’m prone to pass up, given my predilection against books about celebrities written by those in their circle. As for Ten Innings, I found this part of the book’s blurb quite thought-provoking:

It was the highest-scoring ballgame in a century, and much more than that. Bringing to life the run-up and aftermath of a contest The New York Times called “the wildest in modern history,” Cook reveals the human stories behind the game―and how money, muscles and modern statistics were about to change baseball forever.

Now those who’ve been reading this blog for a while know how I feel about superlatives like “forever.” But I wonder if baseball historians can point to one specific game to determine which actually had that much significance. The only ones I can think of offhand are when Ray Chapman was killed by a pitch thrown by Carl Mays back in 1920 and, of course, Jackie Robinson’s debut in 1947.

Still not on either the Amazon or Times‘ lists? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Today: 1,136,277; last time, 887,660. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 212,763 (last time, 838,777). Graduation present?

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.