Baseball Best-Sellers, December 30, 2022

December 30, 2022

In case you don’t get to the bottom, here’s wishing you all a happy and healthy New Year.

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 Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson, by Jeff Pearlman
  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 Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Yankees Fans!, by Ray Walker
  4. The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski
  5. The Bill James Handbook 2023
  6. Beckett Baseball Card Price Guide 2022
  7. The Fantasy Baseball Black Book, by Joe Pisapia
  8. The Greatest Baseball Stories Ever Told, by Jeff Silverman
  9. Baseball Prospectus 2023
  10. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis

KINDLE BOOKS

  1. I Don’t Care If We Never Get Back: 30 Games in 30 Days on the Best Worst Baseball Road Trip Ever
  2. The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America
  3. Moneyball
  4. The Cloudbuster Nine
  5. The Baseball 100
  6. The Sputnik Season
  7. Watching Baseball Smarter
  8. The Grandest Stage: A History of the World Series
  9. Memories from the Microphone
  10. Casey Stengel: Baseball’s Greatest Character

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. K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches
  2. The Cubs Way: The Zen of Building the Best Team in Baseball and Breaking the Curse
  3. Moneyball (unabridged, narrated by Scott Brick)
  4. Full Count” The Education of a Pitcher
  5. Let’s Play Two: The Legend of Mr. Cub — The Life of Ernie Banks
  6. Power Ball: The Anatomy of a Modern Baseball Game
  7. Play Ball! The Rise of Baseball as America’s Pastime
  8. The Baseball 100
  9. Ball Four: The Final Pitch
  10. Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original

So long, Ray Walker, it’s a been nice knowing you. Only one trivia book in the print list. Now it’s time to get serious with the Bill James and Baseball Prospectus books, not to mention the return of baseball cards!

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 1,986,427 overall in books; last time, 764,803. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 2,355,518; last time, an even 2,500,000(!). 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.

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