Baseball Bestsellers, September 3, 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. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
2. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams with John Underwood
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. Ballparks: A Journey Through the Fields of the Past, Present, and Future, by Eric Enders
5. The Natural, by Bernard Malamud
6. The Bad Guys Won: A Season of Brawling, Boozing, Bimbo Chasing, and Championship Baseball with Straw, Doc, Mookie, Nails, the Kid, and the Rest of the … Put on a New York Uniform–and Maybe the Best, by Jeff Pearlman
7. The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond, by Michael Silverman
8. The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Yankees Fans!, by Ray Walker
9. The Wax Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Baseball’s Afterlife, by Brad Balukjian *
10. Heads-Up Baseball : Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time, by Ken Ravizza and Tom Hanson

E-BOOKS

1. 1. Moneyball
   2. Summer of ’68: The Season That Changed Baseball — and America — Forever, by Tim Wendel
   3. The Last Real Season, by Mike Shropshire
   4. Homegrown: How the Red Sox Built a Champion from the Ground Up, by Alex Speier
   5. The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron, by Howard Bryant
   6. Game Six: Cincinnati, Boston, and the 1975 World Series: The Triumph of America’s Pastime, by Mark Frost
   7. Ball Four, by Jim Bouton and Leonard Shecter
   8. Eight Men Out, by Eliot Asinof
   9. The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America’s Game, by Edward Achorn
   10. Cheated: The Inside Story of the Astros Scandal and a Colorful History of Sign Stealing, by Andy Martino

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. Yogi: A Life Behind the Mask, by Jon Pessah
2. Swing Kings, by Jared Diamond
3. Moneyball  (unabridged, narrated by Scott Brick)
4. Ball Four: The Final Pitch
5. COVID Curveball: An Inside Look at the 2020 Los Angeles Dodgers, by Tim Neverett
6. Ninety Percent Mental, by Bob Tewksbury
7. Cheated: The Inside Story of the Astros Scandal and a Colorful History of Sign Stealing, by Andy Martino
8. The Glory of Their Times, by Lawrence Ritter
9. Three Nights in August, by Buzz Bissinger
10. Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir, by Doris Kearns Goodwin

No new titles have cracked this lists. Last week’s print bestsellers remain the same, save for the return of Heads-Up Baseball.

Still not in the Amazon top-ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, right now it ranks at 2,085,213 overall in books; last time, 1,828,019. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 1,741,140; last time, 1,651,205).

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.