Baseball Best-Sellers, October 7, 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

Resilient Rebels: Ole Miss Baseball’s Remarkable Path to a National Title, by Chase Parham
The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski
Confessions of a Baseball Card Addict, by Tanner Jones
The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Yankees Fans!, by Ray Walker
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
Beckett Baseball Card Price Guide 2022
Nolan Ryan’s Pitcher’s Bible: The Ultimate Guide to Power, Precision, and Long-Term Performance, by Nolan Ryan and Tom House
The Church of Baseball: The Making of Bull Durham: Home Runs, Bad Calls, Crazy Fights, Big Swings, and a Hit, by Ron Shelton
The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told: Thirty Unforgettable Tales from the Diamond, by Michael Silverman

KINDLE BOOKS

How Baseball Happened
Moneyball
The Baseball 100
The Captain and Me: On and Off the Field with Thurman Munson
Ball Four: 50th Anniversary Edition
Wrigley Field: The Long Life and Contentious Times of the Friendly Confines
Edgar: An Autobiography
The Cloudbuster Nine
The Sputnik Season: 1957
Warren Spahn: A Biography of the Legendary Lefty

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.

Ball Four: The Final Pitch
Moneyball (unabridged, narrated by Scott Brick)
I’m Keith Hernandez
The Baseball 100
Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original
Try Not to Suck: The Exceptional, Extraordinary Baseball Life of Joe Maddon
The Bad Guys Won
Heads-Up Baseball: Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time
The Church of Baseball
Strength for the Fight: The Life and Faith of Jackie Robinson

A book about college baseball at the top spot? Makes me curious again about the algorithms used to construct these lists. Wondering if that and Confessions warrant consideration for an “asterisk” to denote independently published titles. After all, the author could buy up a bunch for their signings and appearances which would heavily skew the numbers. I guess I should be charitable since I will most likely go that route when I release a revised edition of 501, hopefully early next year.

Also wondering how the Ryan book — first released more than 20 years ago — will have aged, given the revolutionary philosophy in training techniques and the rethinking of the role of pitchers since then.

I attribute the appearance of Edgar Martinez’s bio to the Mariners gaining a post-season berth for the first time since he was a player. And do not confuse Try Not to Suck with the soon-to-be-released The Book of Joe: Trying Not to Suck at Baseball and Life (Oct. 11). Seems to me they could have come up with a more original title.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 1,992,124 overall in books; last time, 2,872,350. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 910,076; last time, 969,932. Still 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.