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.
- Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original, by Howard Bryant
- Swing and a Hit: Nine Innings of What Baseball Taught Me, by Paul O’Neill and Jack Curry
- The Franchise: New York Yankees: A Curated History of the Bronx Bombers, by Mark Feinsand
- The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, by Anne R. Keene
- The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski
- Beckett Baseball Card Price Guide 2022
- This Old Man: All in Pieces, by Roger Angell
- Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
- The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams with John Underwood
- The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Yankees Fans!, by Ray Walker
KINDLE BOOKS
- Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball, by Luke Epplin (My review on Bookreporter.com)
- Rickey
- The Franchise
- Swing and a Hit
- Moneyball
- The Baseball 100
- The Roger Angell Baseball Collection
- Ball Four
- This Old Man: All in Pieces
- Warren Spahn: A Biography of the Legendary Lefty, by Lew Freedman
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.
- Stealing Home, by Eric Nussbaum
- Rickey
- Moneyball (unabridged, narrated by Scott Brick)
- The Baseball 100
- Swing and a Hit
- The Bad Guys Won, by Jeff Perlman
- Calico Joe, by John Grisham
- Ninety Percent Mental, by Bob Tewksbury
- Ball Four: The Final Pitch, by Jim Bouton and Leonard Shecter
- Playing Through the Pain
New to the list: Feinsand’s history of the Yankees.
Roger Angell is still generating interest after his passing.
Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, right now it ranks at 2,417,746 overall in books; last time, 2,201,861. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 2,023,062; last time, 1,946,088. Only $1.99 for the Kindle version!
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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