Baseball Best-Sellers, May 12, 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

The 1998 Yankees: The Inside Story of the Great Team in Pinstripe History, by Jack Curry
The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and John Underwood
The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Yankees Fans!, by Ray Walker
The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson, by Jeff Pearlman
Heads-Up Baseball, by Tom Hanson
The Mental Game of Baseball, by H.A. Dorfman
The Ballpark Bucket List: Take THIS Out to the Ballgame! – The Ultimate Scorecard for Visiting All 30 Major League Parks, by James Buckley
Mind of a Superior Hitter, by Michael McCree

KINDLE BOOKS

In Scoring Position: 40 Years of a Baseball Love Affair
The 1998 Yankees
The Boys of Summer
David Halberstam on Sports
Moneyball
Wrecking Crew: The Really Bad News Griffith Park Pirates
The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams
Maris & Mantle: Two Yankees, Baseball Immortality, and the Age of Camelot
The Baseball 100
Future Value: The Battle for Baseball’s Soul and How Teams Will Find the Next Superstar

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.

The 1998 Yankees (read by the author)
Moneyball (unabridged, narrated by Scott Brick)
The Baseball 100
Yogi: A Life
Swing and a Hit
Heads-Up Baseball
A Damn Near Perfect Game
Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy
Ninety Percent Mental
The Matheny Manifesto

Happy Birthday, Yogi Berra, who would have been 98 this year. Surprised there aren’t more books on this week’s lists aside from the audio version of Jon Pessah‘s biography. But today does mark the debut of It Ain’t Over, a wonderful documentary about the Hall of Famer (and my former NJ neighbor). Here’s the review from today’s New York Times. And the post I wrote when he passed, which notes other books by and about the fan favorite.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 2,742,610 overall in books; last time, 2,630,765. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 1,684,370 (#93 in Teen & Young Adult Baseball & Softball); last time, 1,056,333.

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.