Baseball Best-Sellers, March 3, 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. Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball’s Greatest Minds Creates Sport’s Biggest Mess, by Evan Drellich
3. A Damn Near Perfect Game, by Joe Kelly with Rob Bradford
4. The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski
5. The Fantasy Black Book 2023, by Joe Pisapia
6. The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson, by Jeff Pearlman
7. Ron Shandler’s 2023 Baseball Forecaster
8. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
9. The Catcher Was a Spy: The Musterious Life of Moe Berg, by Nicholas Dawidoff
10. The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Yankees Fans!, by Ray Walker

KINDLE BOOKS

1. Baseball Prospectus 2023
2. Winning Fixes Everything
3. The Franchise: The Boston Red Sox: A Curated History *
4. A Damn Near Perfect Game
5. The Catcher Was a Spy
6. Moneyball
7. In Scoring Position: 40 Years of a Baseball Love Affair
8. The Baseball 100
9. Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments *
10. The Franchise: The New York Yankees: A Curated History *

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. 1. The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America
   2. Winning Fixes Everything
   3. Moneyball (unabridged, narrated by Scott Brick)
   4. The Baseball 100
   5. A Damn Near Perfect Game
   6. Heads-Up Baseball
   7. Ball Four: The Final Pitch
   8. The Matheny Manifesto
   9. The Catcher Was a Spy
   10. Trading Bases: A A Story About Wall Street, Gambling, and Baseball (Not Necessarily in That Order)

Note: Once again, Amazon lists The Athletic Baseball 2023 Fantasy: Win Your League! in the top 10 on the print list, but as I consider it a magazine, and not a book, I’ve excluded it. Blog mea, praecepta mea.

Several new titles appear on the e-book list but are not matched on the print version. Give it time. Especially looking forward to seeing what Joe Posnanski has to offer after his wonderful Baseball 100. 

And in case you wondering about the appearance of the Moe Berg book, mystery solved: He was born on March 2.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 2,800,539 overall in books; last time, 2,758,719. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 2,448,255; last time, 2,415,340. 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.