Baseball Best-Sellers, November 22, 2019

Happy Pre-Thanskgiving, everyone. There are a lot of great baseball books published over the past year for which we can be thankful. And now it’s time to start thinking about which tityles you want to give or receive. So much from which to choose!

On with the usual business:

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 romance/erotic fiction that features baseball as a theme either. And goodness knows there are a bunch of those).

A new “service.” The asterisked books titles are available via Scribd.com, a website that allows you to read and listen to various titles for one flat monthly fee. You can also download them to your device. Click here to see what other titles they have “in stock,” although, like Amazon, you’ll get a few things that you might not consider “true” baseball books as you and I might define them. Well worth the money. You’re welcome.

So, with all that said…

PRINT

The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond, by Michael Silverman *
Ballparks: A Journey Through the Fields of the Past, Present, and Future, by Eric Enders
K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, by Tyler Kepner *
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis *
Fight to the Finish: How the Washington Nationals Rallied to Become 2019 World Series Champions, by the Washington Post
The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams with John Underwood
The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It, by Lawrence Ritter
The MVP Machine: How Baseball’s New Nonconformists Are Using Data to Build Better Players, by Ben Lindbergh and Travis Sawchick
Incredible Baseball Stats: The Coolest, Strangest Stats and Facts in Baseball History, by Kevin Reavy and Ryan Spaeder
Beckett Baseball Card Price Guide 2019

E-BOOKS

Fall from Grace: The Truth and Tragedy of “Shoeless Joe” Jackson, by Tim Hornbaker
Moneyball
They Bled Blue: Fernandomania, Strike-Season Mayhem, and the Weirdest Championship Baseball Had Ever Seen: The 1981 Los Angeles Dodgers, by Jason Turbow
Francona: The Red Sox Years, by Terry Francona with Dan Shaughnessy *
Ball Four, by Jim Bouton
Astroball
The Phenomenon: Pressure, the Yips, and the Pitch that Changed My Life, by Rock Ankiel and Tim Brown
The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and The World He Created, by Jane Leavy
The Echoing Green: The Untold Story of Bobby Thomson, Ralph Branca and the Shot Heard Round the World, by Joshua Prager
The Era, 1947-1957: When the Yankees, the Giants, and the Dodgers Ruled the World, by Roger Kahn

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

The MVP Machine (read by Josh Hurley, #38 overall in sports)
The Phenom (read by the author, #43)

The New York Times no longer offers a monthly list of sports best-sellers.

Welcome back, Moneyball; you were missed. Not much else new, save for some changes in the rankings. The Echoing Green and The Era harken back to the days of classic New York baseball.

Still not on either the Amazon or Times‘ lists? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Today: 1,257,732; last time, 516,252. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 872,514 (last week, 1,252,643).

A reminder: There’s 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.