Baseball Best-Sellers, April 17, 2020

April 17, 2020

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).

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…

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  1. Yogi: A Life Behind the Mask, by Jon Pessah
  2. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis *
  3. Buzz Saw: The Improbable Story of How the Washington Nationals Won the World Series, by Jesse Dougherty
  4. The Big 50: New York Yankees, by Peter Botte
  5. Swing Kings: The Inside Story of Baseball’s Home Run Revolution, by Jared Diamond
  6. Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between, by Eric Nusbaum
  7. Beckett Baseball Card Price Guide
  8. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams with John Underwood
  9. Dick Bremer: Game Used: My Life in Stitches with the Minnesota Twins, by Dick Bremer with Jim Bruton
  10. The Wax Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Baseball’s Afterlife, by Brad Balukjian

E-BOOKS

  1. Berra (Pessah)
  2. The Wit and Wisdom of Yogi Berra, by Phil Pepe
  3. A Terrible Beauty, by Charles Leerhsen
  4. Moneyball
  5. Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic: Reggie, Rollie, Catfish, and Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s , by Jason Turbow
  6. Ball Four, by Jim Bouton
  7. They Bled Blue, by Turbow
  8. Stealing Home
  9. Buzz Saw
  10. The Wax Pack

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

  1. Yogi: A Life (read by Oliver Wyman, #8 overall in sports)
  2. Buzz Saw (read by Angelo Di Loreto, #77)
  3. The MVP Machine (read by Josh Hurley, #79)

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.

The new Berra bio pulls off a triple crown as of this posting, topping each category. Funny to note that the eighth place overall in sports audio books is the same number that appeared on Berra’s uniform.

Other new entries include another of those Triumph specialities (Big 50) that covers some aspect of a number of popular teams and the new Beckett guide. I used to think these were overpriced, but considering how much additional material is needed thanks to the dozens of new card sets on the market, perhaps not.

Speaking of numbers, still not on the Amazon top-ten list? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. Today: 401,138; last time, 1,761,313. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 776,121 (last time, 653,391).

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

Super-shameless self-promotion: And by the way, I am looking for a publisher for an revised edition of 501, UNP having passed on the opportunity. So if you have any suggestions, please drop me a line. Mucho appreciado.

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.

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Tagged as: Baseball Cards, Los Angeles Dodgers, Michael Lewis, Moneyball, Ted Williams, Washington Nationals, Yogi Berra

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