Baseball Best-Sellers, May 21, 2021

New: An asterisk serves to let you know that the author is a member of the Pandemic Baseball Book Club. I enthusiastically recommend you visit the site, sign up for their newsletter, and buy some merch.

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. The asterisk denotes the author is a “member” of the Pandemic Baseball Book Club.

PRINT

1. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams with John Underwood
2. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
3. The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance, by H.A. Dorfman
4. Moon Baseball Road Trips: The Complete Guide to All the Ballparks, with Beer, Bites, and Sights Nearby, by Timothy Malcolm
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. If These Walls Could Talk: New York Mets: Stories From the New York Mets Dugout, Locker Room, and Press Box, by Mike Puma
7. Mind of a Superior Hitter: The Art, Science and Philosophy, by Michael McCree
8. The Wax Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Baseball’s Afterlife, by Brad Balukjian *
9. The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Yankees Fans!, by Ray Walker
10. The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond, by Michael Silverman

E-BOOKS

1. Moneyball
2. The Wax Pack
3. 1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever, by Bill Madden
4. Shoeless Joe, by W.P.Kinsella
5. Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball, by Luke Epplin (My review on Bookreporter.com) *
6. Ball Four, by Jim Bouton and Leonard Shecter
7. If These Walls Could Talk
8. Summer of ’68: The Season That Changed Baseball — and America, by Tim Wendel
9. The Natural, by Bernard Malamud
10. The Last Real Season, by Mike Shropshire

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  (unabridged, narrated by Scott Brick, upper image)
2. Ninety Percent Mental
3. Moneyball (abridged, narrated by the author, lower image)
4. The Matheny Manifesto
5. The Mental Game of Baseball
6. Ball Four
7. 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid
8. The Bronx Zoo
9. Yogi: A Life Behind the Mask
10. The Bona Fide Legend of Cool Papa Bell

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.

Funny how many events/seasons/people can “change the game” (or some similar expression). This week we have two seasons: 1954 and 1968.

Also, finally looked into the reason there are two audio versions of Moneyball: one is unabridged and read by the award-winning narrator, Scott Brick; the other is abridged and read by author Michael Lewis. Here’s a Conversation I had with Brick way back in 2009.

Still not in the Amazon top-ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, right now it ranks at 626,336 overall in books (#88 in Literary Bibliographies & Indexes); last time, 2,024,945. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 325,639 (#39 in Teen & Young Adult Baseball & Softball); last time, 1,376,774).

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.

Now we’ll see who pays attention. Removing the “Super shameless self-promotion” section. Look for some exciting news in the near future.

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: Ball Four, Moneyball, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Ted Williams, Willie Mays