Baseball Best-Sellers, August 23, 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

1. Grassroots Baseball: Where Legends Begin, by Jean Fruth
2. The MVP Machine: How Baseball’s New Nonconformists Are Using Data to Build Better Players, by Ben Lindbergh and Travis Sawchick
3. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
4. If These Walls Could Talk: Boston Red Sox, by Jerry Remy and Nick Cafardo
5. Homegrown: How the Red Sox Built a Champion from the Ground Up, by Alex Speier
6. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams with John Underwood
7. Beckett Baseball Card Price Guide 2019
8. Ball Four: The Final Pitch, by Jim Bouton
9. The Baseball Codes: Beanballs, Sign Stealing, and Bench-Clearing Brawls: The Unwritten Rules of America’s Pastime, by Jason Turbow
10. Astroball: The New Way to Win It All, by Ben Reiter

E-BOOKS

1. October 1964, by David Halberstam
2. Moneyball
3. Ball Four
4. Game 7, 1986: Failure and Triumph in the Biggest Game of My Life, by Ron Darling and Daniel Paisner
5. Homegrown
6. The MVP Machine
7. Fall from Grace: The Truth and Tragedy of “Shoeless Joe” Jackson, by Tim Hornbaker
8. Astroball
9. If These Walls Could Talk
10. The Giants of the Polo Grounds, by Noel Hynd

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

1. The MVP Machine (read by Josh Hurley, #25 overall in sports, which is now, for some reason, under the general category “Biographies and Memoirs.” Yeah, I don’t understand either.)
2. Full Count, by David Cone and Jack Curry (read by the author, #74)
3. Ninety Percent Mental, by Bob Tewksbury (read by the author, #81)
4. Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty, by Charles Leershen (read by Malcolm Hillgartner, #93)

Three of the top ten books on the NY Times‘ monthly sports list are about baseball, including For the Good of the Game (#5), If These Walls Could Talk (#6), and Ballpark (#10).

Grassroots Baseball, which was released in June, makes this list for the first time. Baseball Codes returns. I wonder if the recent incidents of brawls has anything to do with that? Here’s a Bookshelf Conversation I did with Turbow when that one came out.

Still not on either the Amazon or Times‘ lists? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Today: 1,694,020; last time, 1,241,675. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 1,593,525 (last time, 1,482,651). I’d get a kick if these two ever finished back-to-back. By the way, I have compiled an Excel “checklist” of the books list in 501. If you’re interested in keeping track of how many you have read or own, drop me a line.

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 consumer 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: Baseball Cards, baseball stadiums, Boston Red Sox, David Cone, Houston Astros, Jerry Remy, Jim Bouton, Moneyball, New York Yankees, Oakland As, Pete Rose, Pitching, Ted Williams