Baseball Best-Sellers, June 19, 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. Also 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

24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid, by Willie Mays and John Shea
Lou Gehrig: The Lost Memoir, by Alan D. Gaff
Doc: The Life of Roy Halladay, by Todd Zolecki
The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond, by Michael Silverman
Yogi: A Life Behind the Mask, by Jon Pessah
The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II (paperback edition), by Anne R. Keene
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
Mr. Met: How a Sports-Mad Kid from Jersey Became Like Family to Generations of Big Leaguers, by Jay Horwitz
The Ultimate Yankee Book: From the Beginning to Today: Trivia, Facts and Stats, Oral History, Marker Moments and Legendary Personalities―A History and … Book About Baseball’s Greatest Franchise , by Harvey Frommer
The Milwaukee Brewers at 50, by Adam McCalvy

E-BOOKS

The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams, by Ben Bradlee, Jr.
Ball Four, by Jim Bouton and Leonard Shecter
24
Mint Condition: How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession, by Dave Jamieson
Yogi
Moneyball
Bouton: The Life of a Baseball Original, by Mitchell Nathanson
The Wax Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Baseball’s Afterlife, by Brad Balukjian
The Game: Inside the Secret World of Major League Baseball, by Pessah
Lords of the Realm, by John Helyar

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

Moneyball (read by Scott Brick, #22 overall in sports)
24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid (Read by Julian McWilliams and Larry Herron, #49)
Ball Four: The Final Pitch (read by the author, #60)

The New York Times no longer offers a monthly list of sports best-sellers. There are no baseball titles on their regular weekly list.

Nothing new to report, just shifting in the ranks. My review of 24 is up on Bookreporter and I’ll be posting my “Bookshelf Conversation with John Shea next week. Should be quite a treat, talking with the writer who helped the great Willie Mays bring his latest story to light.

Last week I told you about some new “established” baseball titles available for free on Kindle. Check them out again today, there are some new ones listed, including Peter Bjarkman’s New York Mets Encyclopedia (3rd edition).

Still not on the Amazon top-ten list? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, right now it ranks at 2,139,958; last time, 2,076,589. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 685,094 (last time, 522,836).

Shameless self-promotion: if you’re looking for some good baseball reading during this down time, why not pick up a copy of 501? It’s like the abridged dictionary; it has most of the other books in it.

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.