Baseball Best-Sellers, November 18, 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” adult books (no romance/erotic fiction that features baseball as a theme although goodness knows there are a bunch of those available).

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

1. The Grandest Stage: A History of The World Series, by Tyler Kepner
2. The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, by Anne R. Keene
3. The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski
4. The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Yankees Fans!, by Ray Walker
5. Ballparks: A Journey Through the Fields of the Past, Present, and Future, by Eric Enders
6. Beckett Baseball Card Price Guide 2022
7. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
8. A Game of Extremes: 25 Exceptional Baseball Stories about What Happened on and off the Field, by Roy Lingster
9. Resilient Rebels: Ole Miss Baseball’s Remarkable Path to a National Title, by Chase Parham
10. The Ultimate Boston Red Sox Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard BoSox Fans! , by Ray Walker

KINDLE BOOKS

1. The Glory of Their Times
2. Moneyball
3. The Grandest Stage
4. The Last Real Season
5. Yogi: A Life Behind the Mask, by Jon Pessah *
6. Warren Spahn: A Biography of the Legendary Lefty
7. The Baseball 100
8. Playing Through the Pain: Ken Caminiti and the Steroids Confession That Changed Baseball Forever
9. The Sputnik Season: 1957
10. Beauty at Short: Dave Bancroft, the Most Unlikely Hall of Famer and His Wild Times in Baseball’s First Century

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.

1. Moneyball (unabridged, narrated by Scott Brick)
2. Ninety Percent Mental
3. The Baseball 100
4. Playing Through the Pain
5. Chipper Jones, Ballplayer
6. The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created
7. Play Hungry: The Making of a Baseball Player
8. The Bad Guys Won
9. Heads-Up Baseball: Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time
10. Ball Four: The Final Pitch

The only “new” item as far as I can tell is yet another trivia book by Ray Walker, this time about the Red Sox and published in 2020.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 647,589  overall in books; last time, 1,697,545. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 2,163,284; last time, 2,094,625. 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.