Baseball Best-Sellers, April 10, 2020

Getting an early start since I’m home and have binge-watched all I can stand for the moment. Didn’t post one of these last week, so curious to see how many — if any — brand new titles have made the list. So, shall we?

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

1. Buzz Saw: The Improbable Story of How the Washington Nationals Won the World Series, by Jesse Dougherty
2. The Wax Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Baseball’s Afterlife, by Brad Balukjian
3. Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between, by Eric Nusbaum
4. Dick Bremer: Game Used: My Life in Stitches with the Minnesota Twins, by Dick Bremer with Jim Bruton
5. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis *
6. Swing Kings: The Inside Story of Baseball’s Home Run Revolution, by Jared Diamond
7. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams with John Underwood
8. The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond, by Michael Silverman*
9. Beckett Baseball Card Price Guide 2019
10. The Boys of Summer (Harperperennial Modern Classics), by Roger Kahn

E-BOOKS

1. The Wit and Wisdom of Yogi Berra, by Phil Pepe
2. A Terrible Beauty, by Charles Leerhsen
3. Driving Mr. Yogi, by Harvey Araton
4. Moneyball
5. Ball Four, by Jim Bouton
6. The Wax Pack
7. Buzz Saw
8. They Bled Blue, by Jason Turbow
9. The Era, 1947-1957, by Roger Kahn
10. Stealing Home

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

1. Buzz Saw (read by Angelo Di Loreto, #29 overall in sports)
2. The MVP Machine (read by Josh Hurley, #59)
3. Yogi: A Life Behind the Mask, by Jon Pessah (read by Oliver Wyman, #76)
4. The Captain: The Journey of Derek Jeter, by Ian O’Connor (read by Nick Pollifrone, #91)

The New York Times no longer offers a monthly list of sports best-sellers and there are no baseball titles on either the fiction or nonfiction rolls.

Pretty much the same, with a couple of notable exceptions.

Didn’t think of it before, but since there’s no actually baseball — hence, no fantasy baseball — there’s less of a need right now for books like Baseball Prospectus and company. Also off the recent lists? Rule books. I’m thinking some people are looking for items that remind them of happier times, so I’m predicting a return to older titles as well as more history / less analytics. But what do I know?

Speaking of numbers, still not on the Amazon top-ten list? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Today: 1,761,313; last time, 966,294. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 653,391 (last time, 126,772).

Shameless self-promotion: if you’re looking for suggestions for some good baseball reading during this down time, why not pick up a copy of 501?

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.