Baseball Best-Sellers, December 2, 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

The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson, by Jeff Pearlman
The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, by Anne R. Keene
The Grandest Stage: A History of The World Series, by Tyler Kepner
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 Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski
The Ultimate Boston Red Sox Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard BoSox Fans! , by Ray Walker
The Ultimate Philadelphia Phillies Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Phillies Fans!, by Ray Walker
The Ultimate Atlanta Braves Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Braves Fans!, by Ray Walker
The Ultimate St. Louis Cardinals Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Cardinals Fans! , by Ray Walker
A Game of Extremes: 25 Exceptional Baseball Stories about What Happened on and off the Field, by Roy Lingster

KINDLE BOOKS

The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America
Moneyball
The Grandest Stage
The Glory of Their Times
Warren Spahn: A Biography of the Legendary Lefty
The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams
Yogi: A Life Behind the Mask, by Jon Pessah *
Spitter: Baseball’s Notorious Gaylord Perry
Ball Four: 50th Anniversary Edition
The Cloudbuster Nine

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)
The Baseball 100
Ball Four
Ninety Percent Mental
The Yankee Years
Astroball: The New Way to Win It All
The Matheny Method
The Soul of Baseball
Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original
Wait Till Next Year

Thought Me and the Spitter, Gaylord Perry’s “confessional,” would be on the list given the Hall of Famer’s passing this week. And I repeat, Ray Walker will have a list of his own one of these days. As of this posting, he has half of the print best-sellers.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 1,474,235 overall in books; last time, 1,585,814. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 2,308,407; last time, 2,199,667. 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.