Baseball Best-Sellers, May 8, 2020

May 8, 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).

So, with all that said…

PRINT

  1. The Wax Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Baseball’s Afterlife, by Brad Balukjian
  2. 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid, by Willie Mays and John Shea
  3. Big Sexy: In His Own Words, by Bartolo Colon and Michael Stahl
  4. Yogi: A Life Behind the Mask, by Jon Pessah
  5. Dick Bremer: Game Used: My Life in Stitches with the Minnesota Twins, by Dick Bremer with Jim Bruton
  6. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
  7. The Inside Game: Bad Calls, Strange Moves, and What Baseball Behavior Teaches Us About Ourselves, by Keith Law
  8. Doc: The Life of Roy Halladay, by Todd Zolecki
  9. Buzz Saw: The Improbable Story of How the Washington Nationals Won the World Series, by Jesse Dougherty
  10. The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond, by Michael Silverman

E-BOOKS

  1. The Wit and Wisdom of Yogi Berra, by Phil Pepe
  2. The Wax Pack
  3. Berra (Pessah)
  4. Moneyball
  5. The Inside Game
  6. The Closer: My Story, by Mariano Rivera and Wayne Coffey
  7. 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid
  8. Ball Four, by Jim Bouton and Leonard Shecter
  9. Fall From Grace: The Truth and Tragedy of “Shoeless Joe”Jackson, by Tim Hornbaker
  10. The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams, by Ben Bradlee Jr.

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

  1. Yogi: A Life (read by Oliver Wyman, #24 overall in sports)
  2. 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid (Read by Julian McWilliams and Larry Herron, #65)
  3. The Yankee Years, by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci (Read by Michael Kramer, #71)

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 Wax Pack is enjoying major success, judging by the number of stories and reviews that pop up in my Google alerts. There have been quite a few more since I posted this. You can listen to my Bookshelf Conversation with the author, Brad Balukjian, here. (You can also listen to my chat with Keith Law here.

The only new title on the lists is Doc, a biography of the late Hall of Fame pitcher.

Still not on the Amazon top-ten list? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, right now it ranks at 880,951; last time, 420,754. I have a theory: I think the pandemic is sending baseball fans in search of good books to read and they may be looking for suggestions. That’s backed up a little bit by the increase in requests I’ve received for the checklist (see below). Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 560,114 (last time, 722,086).

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: Bartolo Colon, Jim Bouton, Joe Torre, Roy Halladay, Ted Williams, Washington Nationals, Willie Mays

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