Baseball Best-Sellers, December 16, 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 Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Yankees Fans!, by Ray Walker
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 Los Angeles Dodgers Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Dodgers Fans!, by Ray Walker
5. The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson, by Jeff Pearlman
6. The Ultimate Boston Red Sox Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard BoSox Fans!, by Ray Walker
7. The Ultimate Atlanta Braves Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Braves Fans!, by Ray Walker
8. The Ultimate St. Louis Cardinals Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Cardinals Fans! , by Ray Walker
9. The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told, by Jeff Silverman
10. A Game of Extremes: 25 Exceptional Baseball Stories about What Happened on and off the Field, by Roy Lingster

KINDLE BOOKS

1. The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America
2. Moneyball
3. The Cloudbuster Nine
4. Beauty at Short: Dave Bancroft, the Most Unlikely Hall of Famer and His Wild Times in Baseball’s First Century
5. Fall From Grace: The Truth and Tragedy of “Shoeless Joe”Jackson
6. The Baseball 100
7. Why We Love Baseball: A History of the Game in 50 Moments, by Posnanski (Sept. 5, 2023)
8. Warren Spahn: A Biography of the Legendary Lefty
9. The Death and Resurrection of Baseball
10. Yankees 1936–39, Baseball’s Greatest Dynasty: Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and the Birth of a New Era

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. My Dad, Yogi
3. Teammate: My Journey in Baseball and a World Series for the Ages
4. Ball Four: The Final Pitch
5. The Baseball 100
6. The Yankee Years
7. For the Good of the Game
8. Ninety Percent Mental
9. Heads-Up Baseball
10. The Bad Guys Won

Once again, Ray Walker dominates, holding five of the top ten spots in print, knocking off some of the usual suspects like Moneyball and The Science of Hitting. The only thing “new” to report is the return of the perennial favorite Greatest Baseball Stories. Although there’s a new, not-yet published item by Joe Posnanski on the Kindle list.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 764,803 overall in books; last time, 1,964,364. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks an even 2,500,000(!); last time, 2,421,952. 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.