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

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

E-BOOKS

October 1964, by David Halberstam
Moneyball
Ball Four
Game 7, 1986: Failure and Triumph in the Biggest Game of My Life, by Ron Darling and Daniel Paisner
Homegrown
The MVP Machine
Fall from Grace: The Truth and Tragedy of “Shoeless Joe” Jackson, by Tim Hornbaker
Astroball
If These Walls Could Talk
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)

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.)
Full Count, by David Cone and Jack Curry (read by the author, #74)
Ninety Percent Mental, by Bob Tewksbury (read by the author, #81)
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.