Baseball Best Sellers, September 24, 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

The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
Joe Nuxhall: The Old Lefthander & Me: My Conversations with Joe Nuxhall About the Reds, Baseball & Broadcasting, by John Kiesewetter
Ballparks: A Journey Through the Fields of the Past, Present, and Future, by Eric Enders
The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams with John Underwood
The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, by Anne R. Keene
The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond, by Michael Silverman
The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Yankees Fans!, by Ray Walker
Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between, by Eric Nussbaum* (My review on Bookreporter.com)
Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball, by Luke Epplin (My review on Bookreporter.com) *

E-BOOKS

Moneyball
The Baseball 100
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
Unmasked: The Honorable and Dishonorable Truths of a Professional Baseball Umpire, by Zach Rebackoff
The Wit and Wisdom of Yogi Berra, by Phil Pepe
Ball Four, by Jim Bouton and Leonard Shecter
Smart Baseball: The Story Behind the Old Stats That Are Ruining the Game, the New Ones That Are Running It, and the Right Way to Think About Baseball, by Keith Law
The Cloudbuster Nine
Papi: My Story, by David Ortiz and Michael Holley
I’m Keith Hernandez, by Hernandez and ? §

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.

Moneyball (unabridged, narrated by Scott Brick)
The Baseball 100
Stealing Home, by Eric Nussbaum
Ninety Percent Mental, by Bob Tewksbury
Till the End, by C.C. Sabathia
Ball Four: The Final Pitch
The 1932 New York Yankees: The Story of a Legendary Team, a Remarkable Season, and a Wild World Series, by Ronald Mayer
Mickey Mantle: The Last Bot, by Jane Leavy
Heads Up Baseball, by Ken Ravizza
The Yankee Years, by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci

§ I’ve always been curious about Hernandez’s latest book. No one gets credit for being his co-author but I have a hard time believing he did it totally on his own. But maybe he did and that’s why it received such a harsh review from the Washington Post.

Surprised that the Nuxhall book remains on the list. Seemed like a one-off to me, but what do I know? For those of you who never heard of him, Joe Nuxhall was the youngest player to appear in the major leagues, coming on the scene in the war-plagued year of 1944 at the tender age of 15. But even though his career spanned from 1944-66, that includes seven years when he wasn’t on a major league roster.

Still not in the Amazon top-ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, right now it ranks at 2,479,422 overall in books; last time, 2,402,679. I think I’ll stop these updates if it sinks below three million; that’s just too depressing. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 1,831,134; last time, 1,815,987).

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.