Baseball Best-Sellers, March 26, 2021

Just as Opening Day is just around the corner for players, so is it also for readers about the national pastime. The schedule might not be the same: there won’t be multiple releases every day, not even one a week, at least not on a regular basis. But the “rookies” will be hitting the shelves soon, so there is that to look forward to.

Now for the usual spiel:

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 has 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.

PRINT

1. The Mental ABCs of Pitching: A Handbook for Performance Enhancement, by H.A. Dorfman
2. So Many Ways to Lose: The Amazin’ True Story of the New York Mets―the Best Worst Team in Sports, by Devin Gordon
3. Baseball Prospectus 2021
4. The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, by Anne R. Keene
5. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
6. Baseball America 2021 Prospect Handbook
7. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams with John Underwood
8. The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance, by Dorfman
9. 2021 Fantasy Baseball Almanac, by Sean Ryan
10. Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball, by Luke Epplin

E-BOOKS

1. 1. Yogi: A Life Behind the Mask, by Jon Pessah
   2. So Many Ways to Lose
   3. Baseball Prospectus 2021
   4. 2020 NFHS Baseball Rules Book
   5. Clubbie: A Minor League Baseball Memoir, by Greg Larson
   6. Moneyball
   7. The Last Real Season, by Mike Shropshire
   8. Uppity: My Untold Story About The Games People Play, by Bill White with Gordon Dillow
   9. The Mental ABCs of Pitching
   10. The Bad Guys Won, by Jeff Pearlman

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 titles, their reader/narrators, and samples. Note further that these are updated regularly and the top ten list below might no longer be the same.

1. Moneyball
2. Ninety Percent Mental
3. Ball Four
4. So Many Ways to Lose
5. The Mental Game of Baseball
6. Heads-Up Baseball
7. The MVP Machine
8. Moneyball
9. Ballplayer, by Chipper Jones
10. 3 Nights in August

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.

The late H.A. Dorfman returns to the list now that young players are taking to the fields once again.

Here’s my review of the excellent new book about the Mets by Devin Gordon from Bookreporter.com. A “Bookshelf Conversation” with the author is on the horizon. And look for a piece on Luke Epplin’s new title about the 1948 Cleveland Indians on Bookreporter in the next week or so.

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 sent another query to Amazon’s media relations department last week; still waiting for their answer.

Still not in the Amazon top-ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, right now it ranks at 562,292 overall in books (#79 in the category “Literary Bibliographies and Indexes); last time, 1,907,689. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 1,005,419 (last time, 823,976).

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.

Tagged as: Cleveland Indians, New York Mets