Baseball Best-Sellers, July 30, 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. Till the End, by CC Sabathia and Chris Smith
2. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
3. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams with John Underwood
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. Mind of a Superior Hitter: The Art, Science and Philosophy, by Michael McCree
6. The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Yankees Fans!, by Ray Walker
7. The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance, by H.A. Dorfman
8. The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond, by Michael Silverman
9. Moon Baseball Road Trips: The Complete Guide to All the Ballparks, with Beer, Bites, and Sights Nearby, by Timothy Malcolm
10. Heads-Up Baseball : Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time, by Tom Hanson

E-BOOKS

1. Moneyball
2. K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitchers, by Tyler Kepner
3. Homegrown: How the Red Sox Built a Champion from the Ground Up, by Alex Speier
4. Till the End
5. Ball Four, by Jim Bouton and Leonard Shecter
6. Cheated: The Inside Story of the Astros Scandal and a Colorful History of Sign Stealing, by Andy Martino
7. Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning, by Jonathan Mahler
8. Wait Till Next Year, by Doris Kearns Goodwin
9. October 1964, by David Halberstam
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. 1. Moneyball  (unabridged, narrated by Scott Brick)
   2. Till the End
   3. Ball Four: The Final Pitch
   4. Ninety Percent Mental
   5. Cheated
   6. The Matheny Manifesto
   7. Moneyball (abridged)
   8. Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty
   9. Yogi: A Life Behind the Mask
   10. Chipper Jones, Ballplayer

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 323,096 overall in books (not a typo! #53 in Literary Bibliographies & Indexes); last time, 2,343,016. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 1,413,050; last time, 922,799).

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: C.C. Sabathia, New York Yankees, Ted Williams