Baseball Best-Sellers, November 5, 2021

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
If These Walls Could Talk: Boston Red Sox, by Jerry Remy
Against All Odds: The Atlanta Braves’ Improbable Journey to the 2021 World Series, by Atlanta Journal Constitution
The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, by Anne R. Keene
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
The Ultimate Atlanta Braves Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Braves Fans!, by Ray Walker
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
One Shot at Forever: A Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season, by Chris Ballard
The National Baseball Hall of Fame Collection: Celebrating the Game’s Greatest Players, by James Buckley

E-BOOKS

The Baseball 100
Moneyball
One Shot at Forever
Jackie Robinson and Race in America: A Brief History with Documents, by Thomas Zeiler
The Last Real Season, by Mike Shropshire
Cheated: The Inside Story of the Astros Scandal and a Colorful History of Sign Stealing, by Andy Martino
The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams, by Ben Bradlee, Jr.
A Fan’s Guide to Baseball Analytics: Why WAR, WHIP, wOBA, and Other Advanced Sabermetrics Are Essential to Understanding Modern Baseball, by Anthony Castrovince
Ball Four, by Jim Bouton and Leonard Shecter
Year of the Pitcher: Bob Gibson, Denny McLain, and the End of Baseball’s Golden Age, by Sridhar Pappu

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
Moneyball (abridged)
Yogi: A Life Behind the Mask, by Jon Pessah
The Pittsburgh Cocaine Seven, by Aaron Skirball
Cheated
Ninety Percent Mental, by Bob Tewksbury
Till the End, by C.C. Sabathia
If These Walls Could Talk
One Shot at Forever

So much for remembering Arnold Hano and A Day in the Bleachers. He’s been replaced by the Red Sox version of If These Walls… by Jerry Remy, who passed away this week. Plus there’s the standard quickie release by the local newspaper for the World Series winner.

No baseball titles on the New York Times‘ list.

Still not in the Amazon top-ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, right now it ranks at 2,630,056 overall in books; last time, 2,610,941. 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 1,726,923; last time, 1,603,964.

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.