Baseball Best-Sellers, August 25, 2023

August 25, 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. Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
  3. The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams, by Adam Lazarus
  4. The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and John Underwood
  5. The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson, by Jeff Pearlman
  6. The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski
  7. Smart, Wrong, and Lucky: The Origin Stories of Baseball’s Unexpected Stars , by Jonathan Mayo
  8. Banana Ball: The Unbelievably True Story of The Savannah Bananas, by Jesse Cole with Don Yaeger
  9. The 1998 Yankees: The Inside Story of the Great Team in Pinstripe History, by Jack Curry
  10. Chuck Tanner and the Pittsburgh Pirates, by Dale Richard Perelman *

KINDLE BOOKS

  1. Picturing America’s Pastime: Historic Photography from the Baseball Hall of Fame Archives
  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. Sho-Time: The Inside Story of Shohei Ohtani and the Greatest Baseball Season Ever Played, by Jeff Fletcher
  4. Moneyball
  5. Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments
  6. Ball Four: Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, by Jim Bouton
  7. The Wingmen
  8. Smart, Wrong, and Lucky
  9. Maris & Mantle: Two Yankees, Baseball Immortality, and the Age of Camelot, by Tony Castro
  10. The Greatest Summer in Baseball History: How the ’73 Season Changed Us Forever, by John Rosengren

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. The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America, by Posnanski
  2. Moneyball (unabridged, narrated by Scott Brick)
  3. The Baseball 100
  4. Rickey: The Life and Legend of an American Original, by Howard Bryant
  5. Why We Love Baseball
  6. Ball Four: The Final Pitch, by Jim Bouton (read by the author)
  7. Calico Joe, by John Grisham
  8. The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Thing in Sports, by Jeff Passan
  9. Teammate: My Journey in Baseball and a World Series for the Ages, by David Ross with Don Yeager
  10. 62: Aaron Judge, the New York Yankees, and the Pursuit of Greatness, by Bryan Hoch

Sorry, but there are some books that I don’t find carry over to kindle, and a photography book is one of those. Especially this one, which was originally published as a coffee table edition.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 1,857,885 in Books overall in books; last time, 913,074. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 2,620,918; last time, 2,562,446.

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.

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