Baseball Best-Sellers, September 15, 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

Why We Love Baseball: A History in 50 Moments, by Joe Posnanski
The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams, by Adam Lazarus
The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski
The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and John Underwood
The 1998 Yankees: The Inside Story of the Great Team in Pinstripe History, by Jack Curry
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
The Last Folk Hero: The Life and Myth of Bo Jackson, by Jeff Pearlman
No Crying in Baseball: The Inside Story of A League of Their Own: Big Stars, Dugout Drama, and a Home Run for Hollywood, by Erin Carlson
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

KINDLE BOOKS

The Baseball 100
Why We Love Baseball
The Wingmen
Ball Four: 50th Anniversary Edition, by Jim Bouton
The 1998 Yankees
Major Leagues: The Formation, Sometimes Absorption and Mostly Inevitable Demise of 18 Professional Baseball Organizations, 1871 to Present, by David Pietrusza
Moneyball
The Greatest Summer in Baseball History: How the ’73 Season Changed Us Forever, by John Rosengren
Foul Ball: My Fight to Save an Old Ballpark, by Bouton
Once More Around the Park, 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.

Why We Love Baseball
Moneyball (unabridged, narrated by Scott Brick)
The Baseball 100
Banana Ball, by Jesse Kole with Don Yeager
Ball Four: The Final Pitch, by Jim Bouton (read by the author)
Calico Joe, by John Grisham
Heads-Up Baseball, by Ken Ravizza
The Science of Hitting
The Soul of Baseball: A Road Trip Through Buck O’Neil’s America, by Posnanski
Baseball, by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, (read by Burns)

Sorry, but I don’t get how you can make audio books out of things that a really visual. If I recall the Ward/Burns book was full of illustrations. How does that translate to audio?

That’s all I have to say. Nothing else new to report except for Bouton’s book on trying to save Wacunah Park in Pittsfield (where I’ll be going for vacation this fall) and Pietrusza’s history of failure.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 2,693,473 in Books overall in books; last time, 2,497,204. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 2,684,632; last time, 2,673,455.

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.