Baseball Best-Sellers, August 18, 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.az (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. Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments, by Joe Posnanski (pre-sale; available Sept. 5)
2. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and John Underwood
3. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
4. The Tao of the Backup Catcher: Playing Baseball for the Love of the Game, by Tim Brown with Eric Kratz
5. The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski
6. The Ultimate New York Yankees Trivia Book: A Collection of Amazing Trivia Quizzes and Fun Facts for Die-Hard Yankees Fans!, by Ray Walker
7. The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams, by Adam Lazarus (pre-sale; available Aug. 22)
8. The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson, by Jeff Pearlman
9. Heads-Up Baseball, by Ken Ravizza
10. The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, by Anne R. Keene

KINDLE BOOKS

1. Moneyball
2. Ball Four: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, by Jim Bouton
3. You Gotta Have Wa: When Two Cultures Collide on the Baseball Diamond, by Robert Whiting*
4. Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments
5. The 1998 Yankees: The Inside Story of the Great Team in Pinstripe History, by Jack Curry
6. Memories from the Microphone: A Century of Baseball Broadcasting, by Curt Smith*
7. The Last Miracle: My 18-Year Journey with the Amazin’ New York Mets, by Ed Kranepool with Gary Kaschak
8. Maris & Mantle: Two Yankees, Baseball Immortality, and the Age of Camelot, by Tony Castro
9. Tao of the Backup Catcher
10. The Roger Angell Baseball Collection: The Summer Game, Five Seasons, and Season Ticket, by Roger Angell

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. Teammate: My Journey in Baseball and a World Series for the Ages, by David Ross with Don Yeager
4. Ninety Percent Mental, by Bob Tewksbury (read by the author)
5. Calico Joe, by John Grisham
6. Banana Ball , by Jesse Cole with Dan Yaeger (read by Cole)
7. 62: Aaron Judge, the New York Yankees, and the Pursuit of Greatness, by Bryan Hoch
8. Ball Four: The Final Pitch, by Jim Bouton (read by the author)
9. Yogi: A Life, by Jon Pessah
10. I Never Had It Made, by Jackie Robinson

Interesting to see two Ted Williams/military books on the list. Add to that The Science of Hitting and it’s a triple crown.

I attribute Robert Whiting’s inclusion on the list to his posting an excerpt of Wa on his substack.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 913,074 in Books overall in books (#74 in Literary Bibliographies & Indexes); last time, 2,312,505. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 2,562,446; last time, 2,345,806.

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.