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.
- Valentine’s Way: My Adventurous Life and Times, by Bobby Valentine (Here’s my review on Bookreporter.com)
- The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski
- Baseball Prospectus 2022
- Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
- Beckett Baseball Card Price Guide 2022
- 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
- Baseball America 2022 Almanac
- The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance, by H. A. Dorfman
- True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson, by Kostya Kennedy
KINDLE BOOKS
- Valentine’s Way
- The Baseball 100
- Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero, by David Maraniss
- Moneyball
- Baseball Prospectus
- You Gotta Have Wa, by Robert Whiting
- Beauty at Short: Dave Bancroft, the Most Unlikely Hall of Famer and His Wild Times in Baseball’s First Century, by Tom Alesia
- The Last Real Season, by Mke Shropshire
- Uppity: My Untold Story About The Games People Play, by Bill White and Gordon Dillow
- The Final Game at Ebbets Field, by Noel Hynd
AUDIBLE
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
- Ninety Percent Mental, by Bob Tewksbury
- Ball Four
- Stealing Home, by Eric Nussbaum
- The Bad Guys Won, by Jeff Perlman
- How to Beat a Broken Game, by Pedro Moura
- The Mental Game of Baseball: A Guide to Peak Performance
- The Soul of Baseball, by Joe Posnanski
- Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty, by Charles Leerhsen
Finally, a new titles: reading Kennedy’s first book since 2014 (Pete Rose: An American Dilemma) and enjoying it immensely.
Still not in the Amazon top-ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, right now it ranks at 2,576,583 overall in books; last time, 2,329,348. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 2,002,847; last time, 716,730. I think the $1.99 price has something to do with the improvement.
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.
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.
is available on Amazon.com,
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