Baseball Best-Sellers, July 2, 2021

What a strange trip it’s been. 

As most of you know by now, I was in a rather serious car accident during the Memorial Day Weekend, returning home last week after three weeks in hospital/rehab. Three broken bones in my dominant are makes it difficult to type, but it’s part of my physical therapy so i can think of no better way to get back to business than with a BBS post.

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. Till the End, by CC Sabathia and Chris Smith (coming July 6)
2. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
3. The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, by Anne R. Keene
4. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams with John Underwood
5. Mind of a Superior Hitter: The Art, Science and Philosophy, by Michael McCree
6. Cheated: The Inside Story of the Astros Scandal and a Colorful History of Sign Stealing, by Andy Martino
7. The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron, by Howard Bryant
8. Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball, by Luke Epplin (My review on Bookreporter.com) *
9. Ball Four: The Final Pitch, by Jim Bouton and Leonard Shecter
10. The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance, by H.A. Dorfman

E-BOOKS

1. Till the End
2. Moneyball
3. The Last Hero
4. Ball Four: The Final Pitch
5. The Phenomenon: Pressure, the Yips, and the Pitch that Changed My Life, by Rick Ankiel and Tim Brown
6. Uppity: My Untold Story About The Games People Play, by Bill White with Gordon Dillow
7. Cheated
8. Our Team
9. The Giants of the Polo Grounds, by Noel Hynd
10. Summer of ’68: The Season That Changed Baseball — and America — Forever, by Tim Wendel

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. The Last Hero
2. Moneyball  (unabridged, narrated by Scott Brick)
3. Ball Four: The Final Pitch
4. Till the End
5. Cheated
6. Ninety Percent Mental
7. The Matheny Manifesto
8. The Phenom
9. Heads Up Baseball
10. The Science of Hitting

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.

Still not in the Amazon top-ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, right now it ranks at 1,960,654 overall in books; last time, 1,723,605. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 1,457,004; last time, 1,353,095).

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.