Baseball Best-Sellers, January 15, 2021

A reminder: 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 posting them). 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, The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect appeared on the BBS list. “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 “adult” books here, that is, no romance/erotic fiction that features baseball as a theme either (although goodness knows there are a bunch of those).

So, with all that said…

The links under the authors’ names will take you to the Bookshelf Conversations I did with them.

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Baseball Prospectus 2021
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
Beckett Baseball Card Price Guide 42
Ron Shandler’s 2021 Baseball Forecaster
Baseball America 2021 Prospect Handbook
Tom Seaver: A Terrific Life, by Bill Madden
The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg, by Nicholas Dawidoff
K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, by Tyler Kepner
The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Yankees Fans!, by Ray Walker
The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams with John Underwood

E-BOOKS

Moneyball
The Catcher Was a Spy
Shoeless Joe, by W.P. Kinsella
The Fantasy Baseball Black Book 2021
Ball Four, by Jim Bouton and Leonard Shecter
The Old Ball Game: How John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, and the New York Giants Created Modern Baseball, by Frank Deford
National Pastime: U.S. History Through Baseball, by Martin C. Babicz and Thomas W. Zeiler
Yogi: A Life Behind the Mask, by Jon Pessah
The Wax Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Baseball’s Afterlife, by Brad Balukjian
Uppity: My Untold Story About The Games People Play, by Bill White with Gordon Dillow

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 updated regularly and the top ten list below might no longer be the same.

Yogi
Moneyball
Doc: A Memoir
Ball Four
K
Heads-Up Baseball
The MVP Machine
The Yankee Years
Ninety Percent Mental
October 1964

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

Add Baseball America’s Prospects book and Ron Shandler’s Forecaster to the growing lift of “annuals” (Baseball Prospectus, Black Book).

I attribute the rise in Nicholas Dawidoff’s excellent bio of Moe Berg to a recent zoom program on Hank Greenberg’s 110th birthday hosted by the Detroit chapter of SABR. One of the guest was Aviva Kempner, the producer of a great documentary on Hammerin’ Hank. Her most recent project is The Spy Behind Home Plate, which no doubt gave The Catcher Was a Spy enough of a bump to put it on the lists.

Buyer Beware: Amazon’s e-book lists offer the top 100 paid and free titles. But if you look closely, some of the books on the “free” list are in reality not free, so pay attention. I sent a query to Amazon’s customer service about this discrepancy but have still not heard back.

Still not in the Amazon top-ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, right now it ranks at 1,512,428, overall in books; last time, 964,732. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 1,109,270 (last time, 825,342).

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 my books, thanks, hope you enjoyed it, and please consider writing an Amazon review; it’s never too late.