Baseball Best-Sellers, October 27, 2023

Back from vay-cay. Reading an interesting book, The Gas and Flame Men: Baseball and the Chemical Warfare Service during World War I, by Jim Leeke. Also finished a novel — a rarity for me — The Fireballer, by Mark Stevens, on the basis of its inclusion as a finalist for Spitball Magazine‘s CASEY Award. Started off well (IMO), but kind of got repetitive and preachy with an ending that was both uplifting and tough to swallow.

We now return to our regular programming:

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 in 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 out there).

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 (note: this conversation is based on the this book specifically)
The Wingmen: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams, by Adam Lazarus
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, by Michael Lewis
The Baseball 100, by Joe Posnanski (note: this conversation is based on the this book specifically)
Banana Ball: The Unbelievably True Story of The Savannah Bananas, by Jesse Cole with Don Yaeger
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
The Science of Hitting, by Ted Williams and John Underwood
The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II, by Anne R. Keene
Ballparks: A Journey Through the Fields of the Past, Present, and Future, by Eric Enders

KINDLE BOOKS

Mrs. Morhard and the Boys: One mother’s vision. The first boys’ baseball league. A nation inspired, by Ruth Hanford Morhard
The Baseball 100
Why We Love Baseball
You’re Not Welcome Here: Exclusionary Practices in the Game of Baseball, by Daniel Pasternak
Moneyball
The Wingmen
Minor League Baseball Revealed: A Secret Tour Inside Our National Pastime, by Rick Schultz
The Baseball Hall of Fame Corrected, by Eddie Daniels
The Greatest Summer in Baseball History: How the ’73 Season Changed Us Forever, by John Rosengren
How Baseball Happened: Outrageous Lies Exposed! The True Story Revealed, by Thomas Gilbert

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)
Why We Love Baseball
The Baseball 100
Rickey: The Life of an American Original, by Howard Bryant
Making It Home: Life Lessons from a Season of Little League, by Teresa Strasser (read by the author)
Ball Four: The Final Pitch , by Jim Bouton (read by the author)
K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, by Tyler Kepner (read by the author)
Cheated: The Inside Story of the Astros Scandal and a Colorful History of Sign Stealing, by Andy Martino (read by the author)
Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball’s Brightest Minds Created Sports’ Biggest Mess, by Evan Drellich
Coach: Lessons in the Game of Life, by Michael Lewis (read by the author)

Nothing new in print, except the Why We Love Baseball features the latest Bookshelf Conversation with Posnanski. A few new Kindle titles this time around. I have taken the liberty of omitting two that appeared in the top ten since they seemed to be of the “romance” genre.

Still not in the Amazon top ten? 501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die. FYI, as of this posting it ranks 2,414,317 in Books overall in books; last time, 1,719,286. Hank Greenberg in 1938: Hatred and Home Runs in the Shadow of War ranks 2,688,827; last time, 2,697,650.

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.