Baseball Best-Sellers, June 9, 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. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and John Underwood
2. The 1998 Yankees: The Inside Story of the Great Team in Pinstripe History, by Jack Curry
3. The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Yankees Fans!, by Ray Walker
4. The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson, by Jeff Pearlman
5. Banana Ball: The Unbelievably True Story of The Savannah Bananas, by Jesse Cole with Don Yaeger
6. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
7. The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski
8. The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, by Anne R. Keene
9. The Ultimate New York Mets Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Mets Fans! , by Ray Walker
10. The Ballpark Bucket List: Take THIS Out to the Ballgame! – The Ultimate Scorecard for Visiting All 30 Major League Parks, by James Buckley

KINDLE BOOKS

1. Moneyball
2. The 1998 Yankees
3. The Baseball 100
4. Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments, by Posnanski
5. Ball Four: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, by Jim Bouton
6. Banana Ball
7. Welcome to the Circus of Baseball: A Story of the Perfect Summer at the Perfect Ballpark at the Perfect Time, by Ryan McGee
8. Homegrown: How the Red Sox Built a Champion from the Ground Up
9. Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball’s Brightest Minds Created Sports’ Biggest Mess, by Evan Drellich
10. You Gotta Have Wa, by Robert Whiting

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. Summer of ’49, by David Halberstam
3. Ball Four: The Final Pitch (read by the author)
4. The Baseball 100
5. The Bad Guys Won: A Season of Brawling, Boozing, Bimbo Chasing, and Championship Baseball with Straw, Doc, Mookie, Nails, the Kid, and the Rest of the 1986 Mets, the Rowdiest Team Ever to Put on a New York Uniform – and Maybe the Best, by Jeff Pearlman
6. The Science of Hitting
7. A Damn Near Perfect Game: Reclaiming America’s Pastime, by Joe Kelly
8. The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America, by Posnanski
9. The 1998 Yankees (read by the author)
10. Banana Ball

Once again, nothing really new unless you count yet another trivia book by Walker.

Ask and ye shall receive: I have received requests to include links to the books on the Kindle and audio lists. Here you go.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 407,617 overall in books (#30 in Literary Bibliographies & Indexes); last time, 2,086,236. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 2,389,110; last time, 2,277,124.

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.

Happy holiday, folks. Be safe out there.