Baseball Best-Sellers, July 7, 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 Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and John Underwood
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
So Many Ways to Lose, by Devin Gordon
The 1998 Yankees: The Inside Story of the Great Team in Pinstripe History, by Jack Curry
The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson, by Jeff Pearlman
Baseball Playbook, by Ron Polk
The Pitcher, by Walter Hazelgrove
Heads-Up Baseball, by Tom Hanson
The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Yankees Fans!, by Ray Walker
Banana Ball: The Unbelievably True Story of The Savannah Bananas, by Jesse Cole with Don Yaeger

KINDLE BOOKS

Babe: The Legend Comes to Life, by Robert Creamer
Tinker to Evers to Chance: The Chicago Cubs and the Dawn of Modern America, by David Rapp
The 1998 Yankees: The Inside Story of the Great Team in Pinstripe History, by Jack Curry
Moneyball
Swing and a Hit: Nine Innings of What Baseball Taught Me, by Paul O’Neill with Jack Curry
Ball Four: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, by Jim Bouton
Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series, by David Pietrusza
How Baseball Happened: Outrageous Lies Exposed! The True Story Revealed, by Thomas Gilbert
The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski
Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir, by Doris Kearns Goodwin

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
Banana Ball (read by Cole)
Heads-Up Baseball, by Ken Ravizza
Ball Four: The Final Pitch , by Jim Bouton (read by the author)
The Boys of Summer: The Classic Narrative of Growing Up Within Shouting Distance of Ebbets Field, Covering the Jackie Robinson Dodgers, and What’s Happened to Everybody Since, by Roger Kahn
Ninety Percent Mental, by Bob Tewksbury (read by the author)
Yogi: A Life, by Jon Pessah
Making It Home: Life Lessons from a Season of Little League, by Teresa Strasser (read by the author)
The Bad Guys Won, by Jeff Pearlman (narrated by the author)

Appropriate that Gordon’s book on Mets being disappointing shows up now (even though they’ve won five straight as of this posting). Compare that with Pearlman’s book about a winning club.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 2,337,346 overall in books; last time, 1,726,673. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 1,001,494 (#57 in Teen & Young Adult Baseball & Softball); last time, 1,498,248.

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.