Baseball Best-Sellers, June 17, 2022

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 Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, by Anne R. Keene
Swing and a Hit: Nine Innings of What Baseball Taught Me, by Paul O’Neill and Jack Curry
The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski
Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original, by Howard Bryant
The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Yankees Fans!, by Ray Walker
Ballparks: A Journey Through the Fields of the Past, Present, and Future, by Eric Enders
Moon Baseball Road Trips: The Complete Guide to All the Ballparks, with Beer, Bites, and Sights Nearby, by Timothy Malcolm
The Ultimate New York Mets Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Mets Fans!, by Ray Walker
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
Miracle in Shreveport: A Memoir of Baseball, Fatherhood, and the Stadium that Launched a Dream, by David and Jason Benham

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)
A Fan’s Guide to Baseball Analytics: Why WAR, WHIP, wOBA, and Other Advanced Sabermetrics Are Essential to Understanding Modern Baseball, by Anthony Castrovince
Rickey
Moneyball
Ball Four
The Sputnik Season: 1957, by Noel Hynd
Swing and a Hit
Warren Spahn: A Biography of the Legendary Lefty, by Lew Freedman
Dodgers vs. Yankees: The Long-Standing Rivalry Between Two of Baseball’s Greatest Teams, by Michael Schiavone
Yankees 1936–39, Baseball’s Greatest Dynasty: Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and the Birth of a New Era, by Stanley Cohen

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.

Rickey
Moneyball (unabridged, narrated by Scott Brick)
The Baseball 100
The Mental Game of Baseball, by H.A. Dorfman
Miracle in Shreveport
Swing and a Hit
Ball Four: The Final Pitch
Calico Joe, by John Grisham
Ninety Percent Mental, by Bob Tewksbury
The Bad Guys Won, by Jeff Perlman

Miracle in Shreveport — originally published in 2018 — seems to be an appropriate book as we head into the Fathers Day weekend. A similar case could be made for last year’s Moon Baseball Road Trips, as the current economic situation impacts people’s vacation plans and keeps them closer to home. Although with the price of gas, maybe that’s much such a bargain either.

Wondering if the interest in Walker’s trivia books about the Mets and Yankees is influenced by the fact that they are the best teams in their leagues right now.

Interest in Roger Angell seems to have run its course for now.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, right now it ranks at 2,556,293 overall in books; last time, 2,417,746. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 2,059,373; last time, 2,023,062. Still only $1.99 for the Kindle version which ranks 297,495 and is in the top 60 in three categories: Teen & Young Adult Baseball & Softball Nonfiction eBooks (28), Baseball Statistics (42), and Baseball Essays & Writings (55).

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.