The best things in life are free: Golden Boys

Regular visitors know that I usually post a Baseball Best-Sellers list on Fridays. These feature the top 10 titles according to Amazon in print, e-books (Kindle), and audio formats.

Amazon offers lists for paid and free books in the e-book category. (Here’s an explanation of why some books are offered for free. Still trying to figure out how Hank Greenberg in 1938 was chosen for inclusion; as of this writing — 2 p.m. on August 26 — it’s in the top ten at #6.)

For the past month or so, there has been a substantial increase in the number and quality of free baseball titles. Two books in particular stand out.

The vast majority are your bread-and-butter trims. By that I mean a standard book, which you can think of as portrait layout. Makes sense since that’s the format of a normal e-reader like the Kindle. Larger trims, such as the kind you might think of as “coffee table” books, do not lend themselves to that orientation. So it was a bit surprising to see Cuba Loves Baseball: A Photographic Journey by Ira Block and Golden Boys: Baseball Portraits, 1946-1960 by the late artist Andy Jurinko up for grabs. In their original form, these are wonderful editions and additions to the library but I don’t know if the experience can be the same on a device. There’s something about the heft of a real book, especially ones like these, that don’t carry over. Nevertheless, I highly recommend Golden Boys; haven’t had the pleasure of Cuba yet.

Keep checking Amazon’s freebies regularly. There are always new things to explore but you never know how long they will be available, so strike while the iron is hot.