Baseball Best-Sellers, March 24, 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. An asterisk denotes a book making its debut on the BBS list.

PRINT

Baseball Prospectus 2023
The Boston Globe Story of the Red Sox: More Than a Century of Championships, Challenges, and Characters
Baseball America Prospect Handbook *
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski
The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson, by Jeff Pearlman
Baseball America 2023 Almanac *
The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and John Underwood
Mind of a Superior Hitter, by Michael McCree
Prospects Live 2023 Scouting Handbook *

KINDLE BOOKS

Baseball Prospectus 2023
The Fantasy Black Book 2023
Winning Fixes Everything
The Baseball 100
Moneyball
The Greatest Summer in Baseball History: How the ’73 Season Changed Us Forever
The Hidden Game of Baseball
Ball Four: 50th Anniversary Edition
Tinkers to Evers to Chance: The Chicago Cubs and the Dawn of Modern America
A Damn Near Perfect Game

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: The Final Pitch
A Damn Near Perfect Game
Winning Fixes Everything
Becoming Mr. October
The Bad Guys Won
Heads-Up Baseball
Ninety-Percent Mental
The Soul of Baseball

How many “prospects” books do we need? And I wonder what kind of fan reads these? Fantasy players? Collectors speculating on the value of the cards? I also wonder how accurate they are when it comes to predicting the talent. I’ve always said that sports pundits and meteorologists are the only professions where you can be wrong half the time and still keep your job.

Could the appearance of Becoming Mr. October on the Kindle list have anything to do with the new Reggie Jackson documentary now streaming on Amazon Prime or is that just a coincidence?

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 2,853,488 overall in books; last time, 2,849,392. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 642,756 (yowzah! #21 in Teen & Young Adult Baseball & Softball); last time, 2,471,687.

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 dictionary; it has the other books in it. Which kind of reminds me of one of my favorite lines from one of my favorite shows.

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.