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.
The Grandest Stage: A History of The World Series, by Tyler Kepner
- The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski
- The Ultimate Philadelphia Phillies Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Phillies Fans!, by Ray Walker
- Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
- 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
- Beckett Baseball Card Price Guide 2022
- The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and John Underwood
- Ballparks: A Journey Through the Fields of the Past, Present, and Future, by Eric Enders
- Heads-Up Baseball: Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time, by Tom Hanson
KINDLE BOOKS
- Moneyball
- The Grandest Stage
- The Sputnik Season: 1957
- Beauty at Short: Dave Bancroft, the Most Unlikely Hall of Famer and His Wild Times in Baseball’s First Century
- The Last Real Season
- The Era: 1947-1957
- Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball’s Brightest Minds Created Sports’ Biggest Mess
- Doc: A Memoir
- Summer of ’49
- 24: Life Lessons and Stories from the Say Hey Kid
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)
- Ball Four: The Final Pitch
- Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original
- The Baseball 100
- The Grandest Stage
- Winning Fixes Everything
- The Bad Guys Won
- Cheated: Cheated: The Inside Story of the Astros Scandal and a Colorful History of Sign Stealing
- The Phenom: The Phenomenon: Pressure, the Yips, and the Pitch That Changed My Life
- Heads-Up Baseball: Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time
Not surprised to see a Phillies book (or the one about the Astros cheating scandal). FYI, I prepared a list of World Series Books, as well as a few about the teams in this year’s set-to, on Worldcat.org.
Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 206,112 overall in books (#21 in Literary Bibliographies & Indexes); last time, 2,504,068. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 1,820,698; last time, 1,612,275. 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.
Comments on this entry are closed.