Baseball Best-Sellers, January 27, 2023

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. (See my piece on “Why Amazon’s search engine sucks.”)

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. An asterisk denotes a book making its debut on the BBS list.

PRINT

1. Baseball Prospectus 2023
2. Ron Shandler’s 2023 Baseball Forecaster
3. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
4. The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski
5. The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson, by Jeff Pearlman
6. The Fantasy Black Book 2023, by Joe Pisapia
7. Heads-Up Baseball: Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time, by Ken Ravizza and Tom Hanson
8. Beckett Baseball Card Price Guide 2022
9. The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, by Anne R. Keene
10. The Mental Game of Baseball, by H.A. Dorfman

KINDLE BOOKS

1. The Pillar Bs: How to Transfer from Your Biggest Critic to Your Best Coach
2. Moneyball
3. Baseball 100
4. October 1964
5. Warren Spahn: A Biography of the Legendary Lefty
6. The Fantasy Baseball Black Book 2023
7. The Baseball Hall of Fame Corrected
8. Yankees 1936-1939, Baseball’s Greatest Dynasty
9. Summer of ’49
10. How Baseball Happened

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. The Baseball 100
3. Ball Four: The Final Pitch
4. Heads-Up Baseball
5. Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original
6. Smart Baseball
7. The Bad Guys Won
8. Ninety Percent Mental
9. Chipper Jones, Ballplayer
10. The Yankee Years

How soon will we see a bio of Scott Rolen? All due respect, and I posted this on Facebook:

What is it with me that I have a hard time accepting that players like Scott Rolen, who were active after my own “Golden Age” (Mid-60s to mid-70s) are in the same Hall of Fame with people like Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Walter Johnson, Mickey Mantle, et al? Hard to classify Rolen as “legendary.”

The entry has generated more reaction that just about anything I’ve put up on social media. Guess I’m not alone in my query.

As for the BBS, nothing new at all, just a rearrangement with a few old familiars returning.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 2,359,118 overall in books; last time, 2,097,043. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 2,412,535; last time, 2,396,302. 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.