Baseball Best-Sellers, October 9, 2020

October 9, 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.

aIn 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…

NEW FEATURE: By the way, the links by the authors’ names will take you to any Bookshelf Conversations I did with them.

PRINT

  1. The Captain: A Memoir, by David Wright with Anthony DiComo (due Oct. 13)
  2. How Baseball Happened: Outrageous Lies Exposed! The True Story Revealed, by Thomas W. Gilbert
  3. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
  4. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams with John Underwood
  5. The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, by Anne R. Keene
  6. The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond, by Michael Silverman
  7. The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance, by H.A. Dorfman
  8. The Natural, by Bernard Malamud
  9. Yogi: A Life Behind the Mask, by Jon Pessah
  10. Beckett Baseball Card Price Guide 42

E-BOOKS

  1. The Natural
  2. Over the Right Field Wall, by G.P. Hutchinson
  3. Moneyball
  4. Black and Blue: Sandy Koufax, the Robinson Boys, and the World Series That Stunned America, by Tom Adelman
  5. The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams, by Ben Bradlee Jr.
  6. How Baseball Happened
  7. Shoeless Joe, by W.P. Kinsella
  8. Living on the Black: Two Pitchers, Two Teams, One Season to Remember, by John Feinstein
  9. The Old Ball Game, by Frank Deford
  10. Fantasy Baseball for Smart People, by Jonathan Bales

AUDIOBOOKS

Note: Amazon has changed the way they list audiobooks. No longer under the general category of “biography and memoir,” they are now treated in their own baseball/softball category. Here’s the general link to the section where you will find further links to the individual audiobooks, their reader/narrators, and samples. Note further that these are update regularly and the top ten list below might no longer be the same.

  1. Moneyball
  2. Ball Four
  3. October 1964
  4. Yogi: A Life Behind the Mask
  5. The Matheny Manifesto
  6. Ninety Percent Mental
  7. The Captain
  8. The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told
  9. The Shift: The Next Evolution in Baseball Thinking
  10. The Glory of Their Times

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

As I did the last few weeks, I should point out that Tom Callahan’s new book, Gods at Play: An Eyewitness Account of Great Moments in American Sports, was listed in the top ten for both print and e-books, but I do not consider that a “baseball” book for the purposes of these posts so I have omitted it (see note, above).

I highly recommend the audio version of The Glory of Their Times because you get to hear the actual voices of these players. They come across amazingly cogent and coherent, not like the rubes you might expect from that era.

Still some good freebies available for the Kindle. Joining the current batch is my own Hank Greenberg bio (see below). Mixed feelings about this but… Also, be aware: some books listed in the free section actually have a price. I didn’t pay attention recently and was charged. Someone on Amazon’s end needs to be more careful.

And still not on the Amazon top-ten list? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, right now it ranks at 2,190,420, overall in books; last time, 2,101,425. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 1,397,297 (last time, 1,209,293).

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.

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Tagged as: Bernard Malamud, David Wright, New York Mets, Ted Williams, Yogi Berra

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