Baseball Best-Sellers, April 28, 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 (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

1. Ballpark: Baseball in the American City, by Paul Goldberger
2. Welcome to the Circus of Baseball: A Story of the Perfect Summer at the Perfect Ballpark at the Perfect Time, by Ryan McGee
3. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
4. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and John Underwood
5. The 1998 Yankees: The Inside Story of the Great Team in Pinstripe History, by Jack Curry
6. The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski
7. The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Yankees Fans!, by Ray Walker
8. Baseball Field Guide, Fourth Edition: An In-Depth Illustrated Guide to the Complete Rules of Baseball, by Dan Formosa and Paul Hamburger *
9. The Ballpark Bucket List: Take THIS Out to the Ballgame! – The Ultimate Scorecard for Visiting All 30 Major League Parks, by James Buckley
10. Major League Mindset: The Workbook, by Brandon Guyer *

KINDLE BOOKS

1. Ball Four: 50th Anniversary Edition
2. Moneyball
3. Tinkers to Evers to Chance: The Chicago Cubs and the Dawn of Modern America
4. The Wit and Wisdom of Yogi Berra
5. Welcome to the Circus of Baseball
6. How Baseball Happened
7. Baseball Prospectus 2023
8. The Boys of Summer
9. Winning Fixes Everything
10. Summer of ’49

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. Winning Fixes Everything
5. Heads-Up Baseball 2.0
6. Welcome to the Circus of Baseball
7. A Damn Near Perfect Game
8. The 1998 Yankees
9. Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty
10. Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend

The older I get, the more I don’t know what’s going on in the “modern” game, i.e., baseball since I got old. For example, I had never heard of Brandon Guyer, even though he had played for seven years (Tampa Bays Rays and Cleveland Indians) and led the American League in HBP for two consecutive seasons despite playing in fewer than 103 games each year. That’s pretty much the only reason I included his book this week despite omitting another “mental approach” book geared towards younger athletes.

The Science of Hitting has been a perennial on the BBS, but I wonder if it will get an additional boost in sales with the passing of co-author John Underwood, who died at the age of 88 on April 12. He also wrote It’s Only Me: The Ted Williams We Hardly Knew, after the Splendid Splinter’s death in 2002.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 2,426,109 overall in books; last time, 2,168,318. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 1,821,044 (#97 in Teen & Young Adult Baseball & Softball); last time, 1,409,055.

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.

Tagged as: Ted Williams